Maharashtra Clears Way for Osmanabad-Latur Stretch of Ambitious Water Grid Project

The Maharashtra government on Monday cleared a proposal to issue tenders worth Rs 3122 crore for the Osmanabad and Latur portion of the ambitious Marathwada water grid project.

The water grid project aims to provide water in all 8 districts of the drought-prone Marathwada region. Under the plan, 167 thousand million cubic feet of water will be transported from the Konkan region to the Godavari basin.

(A large part of Marathwada lies in the Manjara sub-basin of the Godavari.) Eleven major dams in the basin (across Marathwada and Nashik) will be connected under the new grid, and water from these dams will be distributed through pipelines to households across the region.

The Latur-Osmanabad grid is the third proposal to have been cleared, after similar approvals for Beed and Aurangabad-Jalna, at a cost of Rs 4802 crore and Rs 4293 crore respectively. The final stretch of the water grid project is Nanded-Parbhani-Hingoli.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the water grid initiative by the Maharashtra government. "The Marathwada region will benefit in a big way from this as it will increase water availability for the people. It will free women from the hassles of having to toil hard to fetch water," Modi said. The grid project would be a part of the government’s Rs 3.5-lakh crore Jal Jeevan Mission, the Prime Minister said.

However, activists have raised concerns about the project, namely that the basic issue of unequal water distribution to dams in Marathwada needs to be addressed first. Opponents have also said that Mekorot does not have the local experience necessary to pull off a project like this.