Gadkari: Centre keen on interlinking of rivers

Hyderabad: Apparently with an eye on ensuing elections in Telangana and general elections six months from now, Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Saturday rolled out a plan for interlinking rivers to benefit large tracts of parched lands in southern states besides helping Telangana complete its Kaleshwaram project while reiterating his commitment for funding in full for the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh.

He said: "The Centre is making all efforts for the linking of rivers to take surplus waters of river Godavari till the tail-end lands of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We are making sincere efforts to see that both Kaleshwaram and Polavaram projects are in place."

Addressing on the second day of the three-day Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) national convention at the Parade Grounds here, Gadkari said the Centre was meeting the entire funding of the Polavaram irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh and the works are going on at a brisk pace. The Union minister pointed out that the surplus waters of Godavari will be taken to the Krishna river basin from where waters would be taken to the Pennar river basin. From there, the water will flow into the Kaveri river basin to meet the irrigation demands of the tail-end areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Gadkari said the BJP government at the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working proactively by rolling out development projects like road-grid, fibre-grid, water-grid and improving the railways to give a fillip to the economic growth of the country. These efforts are being made to place the country on the growth trajectory and now, India is the fastest growing economy in the world.