Scaling down earlier estimates by nearly 30 years, the Union government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it is planning to link all major rivers in the country by the year 2016 and has constituted a task force headed by former power minister Suresh Prabhu to pursue this issue.
The others on the task force, constituted by a notification issued on Monday, are vice-chairman C C Patel and member-secretary C D Thatte.
Attorney General Soli Sorabjee informed a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice G B Pattanaik that the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has already identified 30 links for transfer of water from water surplus basins to water deficit basins/regions and prepared feasibility reports for six such links.
Giving a road map for achieving the goal, the government said Action Plan-I would be prepared by April 30, 2003 giving an outline of the time schedule for the completion of the feasibility studies, detailed project reports, estimated cost, implementation schedule, the benefits and advantages of the project.
By July-end next year, the task force would prepare Action Plan-II giving alternative options for funding and execution of the project as also suggest methods to recover the investment.
To elicit the cooperation of the states, it would call a meeting of chief ministers in May/June 2003, the notification said.
The feasibility studies would be completed by December 31, 2005 and detailed project reports would be put in place by the end of 2006, it said adding thereafter it would take 10 years to implement the project.
In addition to the three-member task force, part-time members could be nominated in consultation with the chairman and with the approval of the prime minister.
The notification categorised the part-time members as someone from a water deficit state, a person from a water surplus state, an economist, a sociologist and a legal/world wildlife expert.
Earlier, distressed by the Centre's plan to link all major rivers by the year 2043, the Supreme Court had on October 31 asked the government to immediately constitute a task force to consider achieving the goal by 2012 for better management of flood and drought situations.
Sorabjee had then stated that the Centre has in principle agreed with the concept but the major constraints was the huge expenditure of Rs 5,600 billion (Rs 560,000 crore), at today's prices.
The Centre had in its affidavit stated that it would be able to link the peninsular rivers by the year 2035 and the Himalayan rivers by the year 2043.