The Kishau Multipurpose Project has finally crossed its most formidable hurdle: six states—Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi—have agreed to move ahead with a project decade in the making. The proposed dam on the Tons, a major tributary of the Yamuna, is not merely another hydropower project. It is a regional water-security arrangement involving irrigation, drinking and industrial water, power generation and the ecological revival of the Yamuna.

 The agreement also carries an important financial implication for Himachal Pradesh: the state has secured relief from the project’s financial burden while retaining benefits associated with its power component. It could become a template for future inter-state water projects, provided land, rehabilitation, environment and implementation are handled with equal seriousness. For the Centre, however, the agreement is only the political beginning; delivery will determine its significance.

The scale is considerable. The Centre has declared Kishau a National Project and will bear about 90 per cent of the financial burden, with the participating states sharing the balance. The proposed concrete gravity dam will be 232.6 metres high and create storage of about 1,562 million cubic metres. The project is expected to irrigate around 97,000 hectares and generate 1,476 million units of clean hydropower. The project is also expected to augment drinking and industrial water supplies and regulate flows in the Yamuna basin.  

The Centre’s role will now be crucial

Signing an agreement is only the beginning. The Kishau proposal has remained stuck for years because water allocation, cost sharing and the financial responsibilities of the two upstream states repeatedly became contentious. The Centre’s decision to finance most of the water component removes a major obstacle, but it cannot by itself guarantee timely........

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