Senior bureaucrats of the West Bengal and Jharkhand governments held a meeting on July 29 at Jamshedpur over the early construction Chandil and Icha dams of Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project (SMP) and for settlement of the pending issue of cost sharing of the project among Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal.
SMP when completed would provide water for irrigation to the states of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. West Bengal was represented by its water resources secretary M L Meena while Jharkhand was led by A K Rastogi, special secretary, water resources department.
Both the states stressed the need of early completion of the Icha dam as it could enable regulating water flow from Orissa and thus lessen the impact of flash floods.
West Bengal water resources secretary assured his Jharkhand counterpart that the payment of old dues to the extent of Rs 24 crore which West Bengal owed to SMP under the cost-sharing agreement would be expedited.
The West Bengal water resources secretary said that the meeting settled several outstanding issues related to SMP and irrigation.
It was decided to hold meetings every quarter to review the progress of SMP. It was also resolved that West Bengal and Orissa would regularly exchange information on rainfall, water levels and related data.
