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SEMINAR REPORT ON
INTER LINKING OF RIVERS

SUBMITTED BY:
SHIVAKUMAR. S. S
(4JC99CV041)
VIII Semester
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
SRI JAYACHAMARAJENDRA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
MYSORE-570006
VISVESWARAIAH TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
BELGAUM
2004

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VISVESHWARAIAH TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

SRI JAYACHAMARAJENDRA COLLEGE OF
ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
MYSORE-570006

CERTIFICATE
Certified that the seminar report entitled INTERLINKING OF
RIVERS is a bonafied work carried out by SHIVAKUMAR. S.S for the
award of Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering of the Visveshwaraiah
technological university, Belgaum during the year 2003-2004. The report has
been approved as it satisfies the academic requirements in respect of seminar
work prescribed for the Bachelor Of Engineering Degree.

Signature of the H.O.D

Dr.Syed Shakeeb-Ur-Rahman
Professor and Head
Name of the Examiners:
1)
2)
3)

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CONTENTS
1.SYNOPSIS
2.INTRODUCTION
3.NEED FOR INTERLINKING OF RIVERS
4.CONCEPT OF INTERLINKING OF RIVERS
5.NATIONAL WATER DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
6.CASE STUDY OF BIHAR
7.EXISTING INTER BASIN PROJECTS
8.CONCLUSION
9.ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
10.REFERENCES

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Synopsis
In India, water resources are unevenly distributed. India has a vast
geographical area of 329 mha. Interlinking of rivers is an attempt to link various
rivers in the country to solve various problems such as flood control, irrigation
problems, etc. Interlinking of rivers literally means joining of natural channels. Going
by this natural geomorphologic process through which river systems and their flood
plains are formed. This paper also deals with the Case study of Bihar in this aspect.
Link channels are constructed to connect or transfer water of a river to another river
belonging to a different basin. This paper deals with various aspects of interlinking of
rivers.

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Introduction:
The variations of the magnitude of annual rainfall in India are quite marked. It
varies from an average of about 300cm in northeastern states of India to less than
15cm in its northwestern part in the semi arid and arid parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Also the Himalayan rivers flowing in the northern part of India are snow fed and
perennial, the peninsular rivers are rain fed and seasonal. The hydrological, climatic
and topographical factors cause recurrence of floods in certain parts of the country
and some parts may be under scarcity of water.
The diversified distribution of dominant water demanding features such as
density of population, irrigable land is the context that the interlinking of rivers for
inter basin transfer of water on a national scale has been `haunting individuals and
even engineers for more than a century. Linking of rivers and trans basin diversion of
water is not new in our country and also other parts of the world. Diversion of river
waters for cultivation of crops has been taking place from historical times. During
recent times, the linking of rivers such as the Beas-sultlej link and the diversion of
waters on a large scale to far off areas in rajasthan through the rajasthan canal is an
excellent example. The 440 Km Narmada canal with a capacity of 40,000cusecs in the
initial reach is also to supply water to some of the districts in Rajasthan. The diversion
of 40,000 cusecs of Ganga waters at Farakka Barrage has also proved very useful. The
present National plan for linking rivers has several components. The main ones are :
(i) Himalayan components and
(ii) Peninsular riverlinks system
The implementation of the Himalayan component depends on the co-operation of
Nepal as the major tributaries of the Ganga originate in that country.

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Need for Interlinking OF RIVERS: Somewhere people loose their lives, home, belongings due to floods or
droughts. In either case people dont have water to drink, a basic necessity for life.
Requirement of water: (i)

Irrigation-1,060 cubic meter

(ii)

Domestic water supply and live stock 90 billion Cu-m

(iii)

Agriculture 600 billion Cu-m

(iv)

Industry 64 billion Cu-m

(v)

Energy 50 billion Cu-m

Total 1,864 billion Cu-m
Thus the requirement of water will exceed the utilizable water resources of

1,122 billion Cu-m. The position of agriculture is no better. Today agriculture has
become most unattractive job because of the floods and droughts. The Indian
agriculture has been a Gambling in monsoon. The floods and droughts have
remained permanent visitors causing havoc with Indian economy.
We witness frequent floods in some parts of the country causing havoc,
devastation, damages, human suffering besides, a huge amount of public funds being
spent on relief measures.
On the other hand, there is a large stretch of land vertically passing through
the country as rain shadow area in the name of drought prone area, commencing from
the Ramanathapuram in the south and ending up somewhere in the Ganganagar in
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Rajasthan traversing several districts in almost every state in south India. Many
farmers died by making suicides in Karnataka due to lack of rainfall in the last five
years.

Concept of interlinking of rivers: The concept of interlinking of rivers evolved during 1950 s. At that time, the
UN promoted such projects as part of Stability and Peace. That was the time when
big projects and technology were seen as the answer to poverty. It was also the time
when many countries, after gaining independence from colonial powers wanted to
express their national confidence through such major projects. The interlinking of
Indian rivers proposal originated at the same time as the world became fascinated
with large water infrastructure projects.
Rivers, which join, act as drainage channels and entire river system so formed
drains a specified area called the basin of that system. Thus intra-basin interlinking of
rivers is a natural geomorphologic process. As distinct from this, interlinking of rivers
belonging to altogether different basins is not a natural process and can only take
place through man made devices. Essentially inter-basin transfer of water has been
done through surface irrigation projects, in which lower portion of command areas
include areas in the adjoining river basin through which water is conveyed through
ridge canals. Such inter-basin transfer however, is marked by the following
characteristics,
(i)

Transfer of water is invariably to the adjoining basins and not across

basins.

(ii)

Irrigation channels are generally ridge channels suitable for distribution of

water as distinct from valley channel suitable for drainage of water.

(iii)

Water transferred is directly used, for irrigation in this case and not
brought to a river in the receiving basin and hence does not constitute
interlinking of rivers, and

(iv)

Transfer of water takes place through gravity flows and does not require
lifting by pumps.

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From the above points, it is clear that interlinking of rivers through interbasin transfer of water is different from intra-basin linking of rivers. Interlinking
of rivers that is being talked about as a national programme will have the
following characteristics:
(i)

It envisages linking of rivers belonging to different basins, which may or

may not be adjacent.

(ii)

The primary purpose of link channels will be to transfer water of a river to

another river of a different basin. Any other use of a link channel will be
incidental to serve the primary purpose.

(iii)

Neither the lateral slope available to the tributaries linking with their
parent channel nor the longitudinal slope available to ridge channels for
distribution of water will be available to link channels. Hence, the link
channels will almost invariably have to operate with adverse slope, making
pumping or input of energy necessary. Also, the link channels, as any other
channel, will be subject to seepage losses of varying magnitudes
depending upon their surface and subsoil conditions.

(iv)

As the objective of interlinking of rivers in the present context is to

transfer

water

from

water-surplus

rivers/basins

to

water-deficit

rivers/basins, the direction of flows in the link channel and its alignment
will be determined accordingly.
NATIONAL WATER DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
National water development agent (NWDA) was set up in July, 1982 as
Autonomous Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under Ministry of
Water Resources to carry out the water balance and other studies on a scientific and
realistic basic for optimum utilisation of Water Resources of the Peninsular Rivers
System for preparation of feasibility reports for interbasin transfer of water and thus
to give concrete shape to Peninsular rivers Development Component of National
Perspective Plan envisage by the Ministry of Water Resources. In 1990 NWDA was

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also entrusted with the task of Himalayan Rivers Development Component of the
National Perspective.

NWDA has so far identified and investigated 16 links for peninsular rivers and 14 for
the Himalayan Rivers and has carried out pre-feasibility studies with respect to about
6 of them. The Supreme court of India, in response to a public interest litigation(PIL)
against inordinate delay of rivers a task for which NWDA was created about two
decades ago. The president of India an avowed scientist in his own right also lent his
wisdom in favour of the grand scheme. In accordance with the directive of the
Supreme Court , the Task Force has been set up with a time bound mandate of taking
various steps towards the implementation of the project in a period of 10 years at a
tentatively estimated cost of Rs.5,60,000 crore.
The Agency is headed by the Director General Executive Officer of the
Society, responsible for the proper administration of the affairs and funds of the
Society and for co-ordination and general supervision of the activities of the Society.
The Head Quarter for the Agency is ay New Delhi. It has two field organisations, each
headed by a Cheil Engineer, 5 circles each headed by a Superintending Engineer, 15
Divisions each headed by an Executive Engineer and 8 Sub-Divisions each headed
by an Assistant Executive Engineer/Assistant Engineer.
OBJECTIVES OF NWDA
(a) To promote scientific development for optimum utilisation of water
resources in the country.
(b) To carry out detailed surveys and investigations of possible reservoir
sited and interconnecting links in order to establish feasibility of the
proposal of Peninsular Fivers Development and Himalayan Rivers
Development Components forming part of National Perspective for
Water Resources Development prepared by the them Ministry of
Irrigation ( now Ministry of Water Resources and Central Water
Commission)
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(c) To carry out detailed studies about quantum of water in various

Peninsular River Systems and Himalayan River Systems and which
can be transferred to other basins/States after meeting reasonable needs
of basin States in the foreseeable future.
(d) To prepare feasibility reports of various components of the scheme
relating to Peninsular Rivers Development and Himalayan Rivers
Development.
(e) To take such other actions the Society may consider necessary,
incidental supplementary or conducive to the attainment of above
objectives.
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE FOR WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
The erstwhile ministry of irrigation (now ministry of water resources) and the
Central Water Commission had formulated in 1980 a National Perspective Plan for
optimum utilization of water resources in the country which envisages inter basin
transfer of water from surplus to deficit areas. Apart from diverting water from rivers
which are surplus in ultimate stage of development to deficit areas the plan enables
flood moderation also. The National Perspective Plan comprises of two main
components
(f) Himalayan rivers Development
(g) Peninsular rivers Development

(a) Himalayan Component

NWDA has completed the pre-feasibility studies of fourteen links in the
Himalayan component too. They are namely
1. Manas-Sankosh-Tista Ganga link,
2. Jogighopa-Tista-Farakka link,
3. Ganga-Damodar-Subernarekha link,
4. Subernarekha-Mahanadi link,
5. Farakka-Sunderbans link,
6. Gandak-Ganga link,
7. Ghaghara -Yamuna link,
8. Sarda-Yamuna link,
9. Yamuna-Rajasthan link,
10. Rajasthan-Sabarmati link,
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11. Chunar-Sone Barrage link,

12. Sone Dam-Southern tributaries of Ganga link,
13. Kosi- Ghaghara link and
14. Kosi-Mechi link

(b) Peninsular Components

In this component, NWDA studied in depth water balance studies of various
major river basins including Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery, Vaigai,
West flowing rivers of Kerala, Karnataka, north of Bombay and south of Tapi and
southern tributaries of Yamuna to establish water surplus and deficit regions. These
studies indicate that while Mahanadi and Godavari basins are water surplus, other
basins in Peninsular India such as Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery and Vaigai are water
deficit. As a next step, pre-feasibility studies for 16 probable links were carried out, of
which 7 feasibility studies have also been completed by NWDA. Also, these studies
suggest that it is technically possible and economically viable to transfer water from
the surplus river basins to the deficit ones. Each link, in this component is briefly
described here. This information is tentative and likely to change at DPR stage.

1. Mahanadi-Godavari Link
2. Inchampalli-Nagarjunasagar Link
3. Inchampalli Low Dam-Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond Link
4. Polavaram -Vijayawada Link
5. Almatti-Pennar Link
6. Srisailam-Pennar Link
7. Nagarjunasagar-Somasila Link
8. Somasila-Grand Anicut Link
9. Kattalai-Vaigai-Gundar Link
10. Pamba-Achankovil-Vaippar Link
11. Bedti-Varada Link
12. Netravati-Hemavati Link
13. Damanganga-Pinjal Link
14. Par-Tapi-Narmada Link
15. Ken-Betwa Link
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16. Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal Link

Benefits from peninsular and Himalayan rivers development components

On implementation of the proposed National Perspective Plan for inter-basin
transfer of water, accrual of irrigation benefits would be to the extent of about 35
million ha (25 M-ha from surface waters and 10M-ha by increased use of ground
water) which will be over and above the ultimate potential of 140 M-ha from major,
medium and minor irrigation projects and generation of 34 MKW of hydropower
apart from the benefits of flood control, navigation, water supply, fisheries, salinity
ingress and pollution control.
Current and projected gross utilization in 2050 of surface and ground water
(Billion cubic meter)
Basin

Mahanadhi

Mea

current

Sur

Flo

face nd

w
66.9

18

Projected

Grou

1.0

Percent increase

Tota

Surfa

Grou

Tota

Sur

ce

nd

face und

19.0

31.8

21.8

53.6

Gro

77

208

182
171
133
1821
47

Godavari

110.

38

6.9

44.9

45.8

30.7

76.6

21

0
345

Krishna
Pennar
Cauvery

5
69.8
6.3
21.4

47
5
18

6.3
1.3
5.8

53.3
6.3
23.8

47.8
6.3
19.9

23.0
5.3
15.1

70.9
11.6
35.0

2
26
11

265
300
160

12

Total

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CASE STUDY OF BIHAR

Bihar, a state situated in the eastern part of India, will serve and apt case to
illustrate various issues and aspects related to interlinking of rivers. In the envisaged
national scheme of interlinking of rivers, Bihar occurs significantly, probably as a
water surplus region.
The present day Bihar, after a separate state of Jharkand, can be considered as
comprising two distinct hydrological regions, North Bihar lying north of the river
Ganga up to its border with Nepal and South Bihar lying south of Ganga adjoining
Jharkand. While most of Bihar is part of the Ganga basin, north Bihar is drained by
rivers originating in the Himalayas and Nepal, and south Bihar is drained by rivers
originating in the Vindhyan, Chhotanagpur and Rajmahal hills. All these rivrs join
Ganga at various confluence points lying mostly in Bihar.
The fact that rivers of north Bihar cause recurrent floods, ie; they carry more
water than they can contain within their banks and hence it is concluded that if this
excess flow is transferred to a water deficit river/basin, it will not only provide
valuable water to serve its needs but would also solve the problem of floods in north
Bihar. For this, each component of the view is dealt with separately as follows.
RECURRENCE OF FLOODS AS CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE OF SURPLUS
In the case of north Bihar, recurrent sccurences of floods are caused by a
combination of the following five factors,
(i)

Hydrometeorological
The catchment areas of north Bihar rivers receive almost 85% of their

annual precipitation during 4 months of the south-west monsoons during

June-September, mostly concentrated during July and August. The annual
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precipitation varies from 130 cm in the North Bihar plains up to 300 cm on

the southward slopes of the Himalayan part of the catchments in Nepal.
(ii)

Hydrological
On an average, more than 60% (85% in the case of Kosi and 76%
in the case of Gandak) of the aggregate catchments areas of north
Bihar Rivers lie in high precipitation region outside north Bihar,
mostly in Nepal.

(iii)

Topographical
Catchments of north Bihar rivers undergo a very large and sharp
change in gradients from very steep in the mountainous (Mt. Everest
lies in these catchments) to steep in the sub-mountainous parts to
extremely mild in the north Bihar plains through a relatively short
stretch of 300 Km.

(iv)

Hydraulic
When high flows resulting from run-off transformation of seasonally
concentrated precipitation in higher precipitation upper catchments
areas travel from steep gradients and encounter mild gradients
downstream, they exceed the conveyance capacities of rivers in their
lower reaches. So they spill over the banks and inundate the flood
plains, using them as temporary dynamic storage.

(v)

Demographic
as the inundated flood plains support habitation, agriculture and other
activities of a high-density population, floods cause recurrent
disruption, damages and devastations on a large, attractin national
attention. Recurrent floods in north Bihar constitute a case of ill
management of water resources rather than being an indication of
water being in surplus on an annual and basin wide scale. This is also
linked by other facts and situations as mentioned below,
(a)

It is common experience that crops damaged by floods at

one time suffer from agricultural drought subsequently. In
Bihar, it is estimated that agricultural droughts cause 25%
less in crop yields.

(b)

About 30% of cultivable land in north Bihar is presently

under irrigation, while 90% of the cultivable land is

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irrigable. When this high potential irrigation is provided,
agricultural water demand will rise considerably.

As per the Report of second Bihar state irrigation

commission(1994) , irrigation water demands will fall short of
availability of water in the state to meet food grain requirements of the
rising population by the year 2025.
(c)

When India and Nepal will agree to co-operate in

developing their shared water resources comprehensively,
not only will north Bihar rivers be free from recurring
floods, but other beneficial uses of water- consumptive as
well as non-consumptive such as for irrigation, hydropower generation, water transport, industrial as well as
municipal uses and aquaculture will also be secured for
immense mutual benefits. In that case, the perception of
north Bihar rivers being water surplus will undergo a
fundamental and conceptual change.

ENVIRONMENTAL, ECOLOGICAL AND HUMAN IMPACT

As interlinking of rivers is achieved by a combination of engineering measures
such as dams, barrages, cross drainage structures and link channels, environmental
and ecological impacts as well as displacement of people resulting form each of them
will be the consequences of interlinking.
The link channels of interlinking system will be different from natural or other
man made channels in the following ways along with their associated consequences.
The purpose of a link channel is conveyance and transfer of water, as distinct from a
natural channel, which is for drainage or irrigation channel which is for distribution of
water or a navigation channel where basically depths are maintained for plying of
boats. Link channels will mostly be in filling to avoid excessive lift, will have to cross
natural drainage channels and may pass through forested or inhabited areas. These
channels will generally carry high discharges requiring large cross sections, and
hence these factors will lead to the following consequences.

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Unless the link channels are lined, which will be a cost-prohibitive

proposition, will cause heavy seepage which will not only constitute loss
of water under transfer but may also create water logging conditions in
certain areas.

(2)

They are likely to cause substantial displacement of people giving rise to

problems of resettlement and rehabilitation. As the people to be displaced
will be far from being beneficiaries, there is bound to be resistance on their
part.

(3)

As these long link channels may pass through dense forest and habitats of
wildlife, their ecological consequences may be serious and substantive.

(4)

Import of vast amount of water in arid or semi-arid areas may adversely

affect their dry land ecology.

EXISTING INTER BASIN TRANSFER PROJECTS

The periyar Project, Parambikulam Aliyar Projet, Kurnool-Cudappah Canal
and the Telugu Ganga Project in the south and inter sub-basin transfers in the Indus
basin and Rajasthan canal project in the north are good examples of inter basin water
transfers executed in India in 19th and 20th centuries.
The Periyar project
A masonry gravity dam 47.28m high has been constructed across a gorge on
west flowing Periyar river. A1,740m long tunnel with a discharging capacity of
40.75m3/s has been driven across the mountain barrier to convey the waters eastwards
to Vaigai basin. The project was commissioned in 1895 and provided irrigation to
57,923ha initially, which has since been extended to 81,069ha. There is also a power
station of 140 MW capacity.
Rajasthan canal project
The project diverts water from the Himalayas to the deserts of Rajasthan. The
projet comprises of a huge multipurpose project constructed across the Beas river at
Pong, a barrage at Harike and a grand canal system.

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ABROAD
(i)

In United States, the Californias state water project, first phase of

which was completed in 1973, provides for the diversion of 4 cubic
Km of flow from better watered northern California to the drier
central and southern parts of the state. The conveyance system
comprises of 715 Km long California aquaducts a complec system
of lined and unlined canals, pumping stations, siphons and tunnels.
The lift involved is nearly 1,000m.

(ii)

Inter basin transfer projects have also been planned and

implemented in China and former USSR. A notable scheme
executed in the USSR is Irtysh Karaganda scheme in the central
Kazakistan. The link canal is about 450 Km long with a maximum
capacity of 75 cumecs. Lift involved is 14 to 22 m. other proposals
include partial redistribution of water resources of northern rivers
and lakes of European part to the Caspian sea basin involving 2
M.ha-m of water.

(iii)

In china recently completed inter basin transfer include BiliuhaDaliah inter basin water supply system, trans basin transfer of
Luhana river to Tiajian river and Tengshan. Diversion of yellow
river surpluses and south to north transfer project.

Promises

Pitfalls

Transfer 173 billion cubic metres of water More inter state water disputes;
to water-stressed regions
Building 11000km of canal network

Diplomatic row with Bangladesh &Nepal

Increased incidence of water logging and

Generate 34000 MW of power

submergence of 79,292 ha of forests.

Rising funds a constraint; cost-overturn to

Boost GDP growth by 4%

make the project prohibitively costly.

4.5 lakh people to be displaced.

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CONCLUSION
The foreign schemes give confidence for planning inter-basin water transfer
schemes in India. At the same time, lessons have to be learnt from their actual
performance, economic viability and environmental suitability.
The envisaged benefits to water-deficit regions of the country through
interlinking of rivers and also solution for problems such as flood as seen from case
study of Bihar should be assessed and analysed in terms of economic, environmental
and ecological as well as social cost involved and finding options and alternatives in
the context.
The conceptual, technological and economic aspects of interlinking need
comprehensive examination and analysis.

Fig 1: Interlinked rivers of India.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Many information presented in this paper have been collected from the
Magazines, internet and newspapers. The author acknowledges these sources
gratefully. The author wish to express special gratefulness to Dr. C. Nataraja,

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Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, S.J.C.E., Mysore, for his

guidance.

REFERENCES
1. Prasad. T,(2004), Interlinking of rivers for inter basin transfer. Economic
and political weekly ;March 20th,2004
2. Vaidyanathan.A, (2003), Interlinking of peninsular rivers:A Critique
Economic and political weekly ;July 5
3. S.A.Char, (2003)Linking of National Rivers , National Seminar on Inter
linking of Rivers, 30th April and 1st May, 2003.
4. G.Vasantha (2003); Need For Linking Rivers, National Seminar on Inter
linking of Rivers, 30th April and 1st May, 2003.
5. Report by, Central Water Commision, National Water Authority, GOI, An
Overview Of Inter-basin water transfer studies, National Seminar on Inter
linking of Rivers, 30th April and 1st May, 2003.
6. Biksham Gujja & Hajara Shaik,(2003), Linking rivers:Learn from others
mistakes, The Hindu Survey Of The Environment 2003.
7. Sudhirendra Sharma, (2003), Linking rivers:A Dream or a Nightmare, The
Hindu Survey Of The Environment 2003

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