Dr K.L.Rao in early fifties came up with the “Inter Basin Water Transfer” idea.

NATIONAL WATER GRID BY DR. K.L. RAO : A note on the National Water Grid was earlier prepared by the then Central Water & Power Commission (around 1972) and three possible alignments for the Ganga-Cauvery link along with other links were brought out. Further studies were made by Dr. K.L. Rao who advocated one of the alignments for the Ganga-Cauvery link along with a few other links including the Brahmaputra and Ganga Link. The 2640 km long Ganga-Cauvery link essentially envisaged the withdrawal of 1680 cumec (60000 cusec) of the flood flows of the Ganga near Patna for about 150 days in a year and pumping about 1400 cumec (50,000 cusec) of this water over a head of 549 metres (1800 feet) for transfer to the Peninsular region and utilizing the remaining 280 cumec (10,000 cusec) in the Ganga basin itself. The proposal envisaged utilization of 2.59 million hectare metres of Ganga water to bring under irrigation an additional area of 4 M.Ha. Dr. Rao had also proposed a few additional links like (a) Brahmaputra-Ganga link to transfer 1800 to 3000 cumec with a lift of 12 to 15 m. (b) Link transferring 300 cumec of Mahanadi water southwards (c) Canal from Narmada to Gujarat and Western Rajasthan with a lift of 275 m and (d) links from rivers of the western ghats towards east. Dr. Rao had estimated his proposals to cost about Rs. 12,500 crores. Very roughly at 1995 prices the Ganga -Cauvery link alone would amount to about Rs. 70,000 crores (capital cost). The annual costs including cost of power would be around Rs. 30,000 per hectare. As further seen, the present NWDA proposals for inter linking river between Ganga and Cauvery at present prices would cost only around Rs. 15,000 per hectare annually. The proposals were examined by the Central Water Commission and found to be grossly under-estimated. It was also observed that the scheme would require large blocks of power ( 5000 to 7000 MW ) for lifting water. It will also have no flood control benefits. Therefore, the proposal was not pursued as such.

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GARLAND CANAL BY CAPTAIN DASTUR : Captain Dastur, earlier put forward his proposal for Garland Canal which mainly consists of two canals, viz. (i) A 4200 km long, 300 m wide Himalayan Canal at a constant bed level between 335 m. and 457 m. above Mean Sea Level aligned along the southern slopes of the Himalayas running from the Ravi in the west to the Brahmaputra in the east and beyond. It will be fed by the Himalayan river water stored in 50 integrated lakes to be created by cutting the hill slopes of the Himalayas to the same level as the bed of the canal, and another 40 lakes beyond Brahmaputra. The proposal envisaged a storage capacity of 24.7 M.Ham to control and distribute 61.7 M.Ham of water. (ii) 9300 km long 300 m wide Central and Southern Garland Canal at a constant elevation of between 244 m. and 305 m above the Mean Sea Level. This Garland Canal was proposed to have about 200 integrated lakes having a storage capacity of 49.7 M.Ham to control and distribute 86.4 M.Ham. The Himalayan and Garland canals were proposed to be inter-connected at two points (Delhi and Patna) by 5 no. of 3.7 m.dia pipelines for transfer of water. Captain Dastur estimated that all the surplus waters in the country will be utilized to irrigate 219 M.Ha. About 16.8 million volunteers were expected to complete the work in 3 to 4 years. The cost estimated by Captain Dastur (around 1974) was Rs. 24095 crores.

The proposal was examined by two committees of Experts comprising experts from Central Water Commission, State Governments and Professors from IIT and University of Roorkee who were of the opinion that the proposal was technically unsound and economically prohibitive. Preliminary studies carried out by Central Water Commission (around 1979) indicated that the cost of the Dastur proposal was about Rs. 12 million crores. The scheme was therefore, given up.

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August 1980: A National Perspective for Water Development framed by the Ministry of Water Resources.

July 1982: National Water Development Agency (NWDA) was created and registered under Societies Act to carry out surveys and prepare feasibility reports on River Link Projects.

September 1987: The National Water Policy stated that its prime goal is to interlink national rivers.

Sept 1999: Report of the NCIWRDP.

Oct 31, 2002: Supreme Court order suggesting inter-linking of major rivers.

Nov 2002: Govt announces that feasibility studies for six of the peninsular link proposals are ready.

Dec 16, 2002: Govt appoints a task force under the chairmanship of Suresh Prabhu.

Dec 7 2002: Justice (Retd) B N Kirpal clarifies that the Supreme Court observation on linking of rivers was only a suggestion.

Source: 1. Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India.
            2. http://www.narmada.org   

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