Team News Riveting
Raipur, June 6
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday said that the multipurpose Bodhghat project in Dantewada district would be built only with the consent of the locals.
“Development works are connected to public concerns. The Bodhghat project will not be started in any case until people of Bastar give their nod to commence it,” Baghel said while talking to reporters in Kanker. The Chief Minister is currently on a campaign “Bhet Mulaqat”, covering all 90 assembly constituencies to note down people’s response on the governance at the ground level.
Initially proposed as a hydropower project, the 300 mega-watt (MW) Bodhghat multi-purpose dam project on the Indravati river near Barsur, received the environment clearance way back in 1979. Following large scale protests by the green activists raising the issues about displacement of the tribal communities, the project was put under the cold carpet for over four decades.
Baghel wished to revive the project with focus on increasing irrigation acreage that would facilitate strengthening the rural economy. But the Chief Minister has made it clear, the project will be expedited only with the consent of people affected by the plan. The state government would not go ahead with the project if there was resistance from the local people against the project.
The project is expected to irrigate close to 400,000 hectares of farmland. It will also displace over 40 villages and submerge more than 5,000 hectares of forests.
In May 2020, the central government provided its consent to begin the first phase of this project which is the survey. The project, which is estimated to cost Rs 22,000 crore.
