This exercise is being seen as a desperate bid to meet the May 2000 deadline for the tripartite Krishna water sharing award. The State has so far impounded over 400 thousand million cubic (TNC) feet water of its share of 550 TMC. The target now is to create storage for an additional 150 TMC. All within eight months.

The Maharashtra Government may seek World Bank assistance for raising the heights of the dams which the Irrigation Department sources say is a ``secure way'' to harness the hitherto untapped catchment development potential.

Impounding additional water in the existing dams at relatively meager costs, without involving new land acquisitions and without related problems, have been listed as major advantages derived by raising the heights.

But a section of senior officials have their apprehensions about such a move, saying it is being done without an in-depth study of the untapped catchment potential and available floods management mechanisms.

State Irrigation Minister Ekanath Khadse in January last had disclosed that the government planned to raise heights of 14 irrigation projects, including Koyana which he said had been ``accepted in principle''. Raising heights of the three mighty dams -- Koyna, Ujani and Dudhganga -- by five feet alone was estimated to add 19 TMC water to the State's reservoirs.

``The plan is still on the drawing boards,'' a senior Irrigation official told The Indian Express. The official pointed out that the idea to raise heights of some of the dams surfaced after the Ministry of Environment and Forests threw a wet blanket on some of the Krishna valley projects.

Other projects were facing opposition from affected farmers. At least one project in Kolhapur district had run into probplems with the Ministry because it involved submerging an existing sanctuary. The Ministry reaction had also left fate of two other projects hanging in balance.

According to Khadse, environmental clearances for the MKVDC would not have led to a situation which warranted raising the heights of dams. The minister had also refuted the possibility of the Krishna dams going the Almatti way wherein increase in the height had been challenged in the Supreme Court. Khadse's contention was that Maharashtra would not be impounding even a single drop of water beyond its allotted share of Krishna water.

The Krishna water sharing award of 1975 dividing the available usable 2020 TMC water makes it mandatory for Maharashtra to utilise its share of 599 TMC water before May 2000.

After the change of guard in Mumbai in March 1995, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine saw the Krishna valley projects as the gateway to the Congress dominated sugar bowl of western Maharashtra. Trying to encash failure of successive Congress governments in funding the Krishna valley projects in the last two decades, the saffron combine opened its account with the Rs 7100 crore Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC), involving open market borrowings.

Meanwhile, when the MKVDC view was sought, a spokesman said that the Corporation had rescheduled its plan for 1999-2000. The Corporation plans to complete 34 irrigation projects in this period including seven major, 14 medium and 13 minor projects.

The Corporation has so far completed 269 of the 336 projects in Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur districts.