DAM STRENGTHENING

Subject: Govt Schemes

Context: The cabinet committee on economic affairs on Thursday approved a Rs 10,211-crore project to improve the safety and performance of select dams across India.

Concept:

• The dam rehabilitation and improvement project (DRIP)–phase II and phase III–is financially supported by the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
• DRIP will be implemented over a period of 10 years in two phases – each of six years with two years overlapping from April 2021 to March 2031. The first phase of this project started in 2012.
• The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), Government of India is implementing agency .
• Central Dam Safety Organisation of Central Water Commission, assisted by a Consulting firm, is coordinating and supervising the Project implementation.
• The project originally envisaged the rehabilitation and improvement of about 223 dams within four states namely, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu and later Karnataka, Uttarakhand (UNVNL) and Jharkhand (DVC) joined DRIP and total number of dams covered under DRIP increased to 250.
• The project will also promote new technologies and improve Institutional capacities for dam safety evaluation and implementation at the Central and State levels and in some identified premier academic and research institutes of the country.
• The project development objectives of DRIP are: (i) to improve the safety and performance of selected existing dams and associated appurtenances in a sustainable manner, and (ii) to strengthen the dam safety institutional setup in participating states as well as at central level.