Rajiv Gandhi Lift Canal Phase-3 | 20 Feb 2023

Why in News?

On February 19, 2023, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot laid the foundation stone of the Rs 1799 crore 'Rajiv Gandhi Lift Canal Phase III Project' at Umaid Stadium in Jodhpur district of the state.

Key Points

• On this occasion, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that there will be no financial shortage in the completion of the third phase of Rajiv Gandhi Lift Canal. The project has been designed keeping in mind the drinking water requirements for the year 2054.
• Minister of Public Health Engineering Joshi said that the third phase of the Rs 1799 crore Rajiv Gandhi Lift Canal Project has been targeted to be completed by the year 2025. With this, there will be no shortage of water in Jodhpur, Pali, Barmer for the next 30 years.
• Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that in the third phase, the proposed plan of pipeline and four pump houses in the entire length parallel to the main canal is to be completed. On completion of the work, a total of 1030 MLD of water van be supplied by the existing Rajiv Gandhi Lift Canal and the proposed pipeline.
• With this, a total of 2,167 villages including 1,830 villages of Jodhpur city, Phalodi, Pipad, Bilara, Bhopalgarh and Samaddi towns and Jodhpur district, 211 villages of Barmer and 126 villages of Pali with a population of 80 lakh will be benifitted by 2054. This will meet the net drinking water demand of more than 69.79 crore litres per day.
• On completion of phase-III, the water withdrawal capacity from Indira Gandhi Canal will increase to 420 cusecs. The project will provide drinking water demand of 4.93 crore litres per day for institutional and commercial sector under Jodhpur district, 3.72 crore litres per day for Department of Defence, 4.30 crore litres per day for industrial (REICO) sector and 6 crore litres for Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor being developed in Rohat.
• The Chief Minister said that the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) is very important for the availability of drinking water and irrigation in 13 districts of Eastern Rajasthan. The state government has provided a budget of Rs 13,500 crore for this.