.A total of 2.58 lakh hectare of area in Nagpur, Bhandara and Chandrapur districts will come under irrigation following the dams' construction near Gosikhurd village, 45 kilometres from Bhandara city. Four lift irrigation schemes, one each at Tekapar, Ambhora, Mokhabardi and Padhora villages are proposed to be based on this project.

While the actual construction work is expected to begin by October this year the basic earth-work on the 11.35 kilometres long and 22.50 metres high dam, which was granted administrative clearance in 1981-82 has been completed to the extent of 55 per cent.

The concretisation work which will require hi-tech machineries are being gathered at the construction site. A concrete mixing plant, which will churn out 1,200 cubic metres of concrete mixture per day willbe set up at the site.

Whereas, more than 80 per cent work of the 23 kilometre long left canal of the dam has been completed, the work on the 107 kilometres long right canal is in limbo due to the problems in identifying and acquiring land for compensatory afforestation. Construction of the right canal uptil the first 10 kilometres is currently underway.

The proposal for alternative forest land for this canal has been sent to the Central government for clearance and the case is being followed-up by the State government. A special division has been created for the project in the State irrigation department and an executive engineer has been appointed on it.

Although the project got administrative clearance in 1981-82, several problems including inadequate financial allocations by successive State governments, inaction by the region's politicians, clearance from forest and environment ministry of the Central government, problems of rehabilitation and alternative forest land, delayed the project for 15years.

The original project cost was Rs 372 crore, but the inordinate delay has multiplied the cost to a staggering Rs 2,091 crore (as projected in 1995).