Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti will inaugurate a workshop to discuss need for rehabilitating old large dams, which are experiencing distress conditions, to ensure their safety on February 18.
Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat will also attend the workshop on lessons learnt from Centre's on-going Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP), besides senior executives overseeing dam operation and maintenance in states.
"In view of the complex nature of issues involved in rehabilitation of these dams, it was felt appropriate to draw on experience of DRIP implementation in sensitising dam safety concerns and determine strategies for undertaking this enormous task. Accordingly, the workshop is being organised," the ministry said in a statement.
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According to the Ministry, there are about 4900 large dams in the country and about 80 per cent of them are over 25 years old.
The old dams designed and built to withstand certain levels of flood and earthquake may not meet the revised estimates based on information gathered over the period, the Ministry said.
Realising importance of dam safety in the country, the Government had embarked on DRIP in April, 2012, it added.
"Recommendations emerging out of the conference will help in determining strategies for undertaking large scale rehabilitation work and for managing the technical, managerial and financial resources required to implement the mammoth task," the statement reads.
