Amid growing environmental concerns over the river linking project, an NGO has come up with an "eco-friendly" method to connect the water bodies with grids so that states can share the resources according to their requirements.
"Interlinking of Rivers project (ILR) is not viable in its present form. We have, therefore, come up with a new proposal - National Waterways Project (NWP)," said A C Kamaraj, expert committee member of ILR panel in the present governemnt and Nawad Tech Chairman.
Addressing a seminar 'on Emerging Trends on National Waterways for Water Security and navigation of India', Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan said there is a need to reduce over-dependence on road and rail transport by promoting coastal shipping and inland waterway system.
It is also noteworthy that the government has given prominence to Inland Waterway Transport in the 12th Five Year Plan through higher plan allocation, he said.
Kamraj said yesterday five cases were heard in the Supreme Court on water. All these disputes when we have water more than enough to meet all the requirements of all the people.
"We have developed a working model near Madurai to demonstrate the concept of two-way flow in zero slope canal. An expert team from Canada has visited the model which explains the principle of harvesting only flood water in a river basin, impounds it in the contour canal (Smart Waterway), transmits by differential head and distributes only when required," said V Ponraj, Advisor to former President A P J Abdul Kalam.
