Repair of Jayakwadi canal systems soon: Jayant Patil

Aurangabad: State water resources minister Jayant Patil on Sunday said repair work of both the canal systems of the Jayakwadi major irrigation project in Aurangabad district would be taken up soon.
“The water carrying capacity of both the canal systems has decreased over a period of time and a survey has been ordered to assess the actual efficiency of both the canals.Necessary repair will be carried out soon by seeking funds from the World Bank in order to ensure water released from the dam reaches the tail-end with minimum transition loss,” he said.
Patil, who held a review meeting of his department here in presence of different public representatives, asked the Godavari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation (GMIDC) to expedite necessary formalities for tabling the proposal for repair of Jayakwadi canal system.
The ToI in the past had highlighted the issue of “busy” canals of Jayakwadi dam that have been allegedly infested with unwanted vegetations leading to leakages and causing transmission losses in the range of 25 to 40% while flowing towards far end of the command areas from Parbhani and other parts.
The left bank canal system of Jayakwadi dam has an irrigable command area of around 1,41,640 hectare spread over Aurangabad , Jalna and Parbhani districts, whereas the right bank canal system has 41,682 hectare of irrigable area spread over Aurangabad and Beed districts in Marathwada besides Ahmednagar district.
In another major announcement, Patil during a review meeting at Parbhani on Saturday, said the state government would go-ahead with construction of five barrages in the downstream areas of Purna dam.