The government on Monday said that it had ascertained that construction activity on Brahmaputra River inside Chinese territory would not adversely impact the downstream areas of India.
This information was provided by Vincent Pala, Minister of State in the Water Resources Ministry in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
"The government has ascertained that construction activity on Brahmaputra River at Zangmu on the Chinese side is a run of the river hydro-electric project, which does not store water and will not adversely impact the downstream areas in India," Pala said.
In reply to another question, Pala gave an indication that the government could revamp the Brahmaputra board. "Revamping of Brahmaputra Board is dependent on amendment
of Brahmaputra Board Act 1980 which is under active consideration in this ministry," Pala said.
In response to a question on the interlinking of rivers programme, Pala said that it was being "pursued in a consultative manner with the consensus and cooperation of the
concerned states."
He also said that the Supreme Court had recently dismissed a writ petition related to the interlinking of rivers programme but his ministry had yet not got a copy of it.
Pala said that a proposal of a Ganga-Kaveri link conceptualised by National Water Ways Project was examined by National Water Development Agency which found it was not techno-economically viable.
