By IANS,
New Delhi : The cabinet Friday approved the scheme of repair, renovation and restoration of water bodies across the country on an investment of Rs.60 billion (Rs.6,000 crore).
The scheme will cover about 23,000 water bodies across the country with a culturable command area of 1.68 million hectares. When completed, the project will create an additional irrigation potential of 750,000 hectares.
The scheme envisages the states to prepare projects with a sub-basin approach for public water bodies on land belonging to the government, municipal corporations, registered societies in agriculture and allied sectors as well as public trusts.
The objective is to attain comprehensive improvement of selected tank systems including restoration, improvement of catchment area of tank commands, increase in storage capacity of water bodies, improvement in agriculture and horticulture productivity, increase in recharge of groundwater in downstream areas of water bodies, development of tourism, cultural activities, and increased availability of drinking water.