Fund for interlinking of rivers underutilised

A recent report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources has drawn attention to the underutilisation of funds allocated to the country’s flagship Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) programme during the 2025-26 financial years.

- RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @New Delhi

Expressing serious concern over the slow pace of spending, the committee urged the Union government to accelerate project execution to ensure timely completion. According to the report, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), which is responsible for implementing river interlinking under the National Perspective Plan (NPP) formulated in 1980, is overseeing 30 proposed link projects. These include 16 projects under the Peninsular component and 14 under the Himalayan component. The overarching objective of these initiatives is to enable the transfer of water from surplus river basins to deficit regions, thereby enhancing water availability in drought-prone and rain-fed areas.