Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The proposed 320 km long Ganga-Brahmaputra link canal would intercept a
number of rivers and rivulets in India and Bangladesh, The largest one is the Teesta;
the canal would cross it almost at right angle in Bangladesh. India proposed a level-
crossing with four-way navigation facility in all directions. This would be a very
big engineering project and the level-crossing would possibly be the largest such
in the world. The estimated cost of the Indian proposal at 1983 price level was
160,000 billion rupees.
Bangladesh's Proposal
Bangladesh was totally opposed to transfer of any amount of water from the
Brahmaputra basin to that of the Ganga. Dhaka believed that transfer of water
from one basin to another was not the best way of augmenting the dry-season flow.
Instead, it proposed that the available water of the basin should be gainfully utilized
by making arrangements for storage of surplus water during monsoon months. The
proposal of Bangladesh comprised the following:
a) Construction of storage dams in the upper reaches of the Ganga basin in India
and Nepal for storing surplus water and its release in the dry season;
b) Construction of a canal through the Tarai region of Nepal to carry water from the
Gandak and the Kosi to the Mahananda, the Karatoya and the Atreyi; and
c) Augmentation of dry-season flow by conserving a part of the river's mon-
soon discharge in storage dams in the upper reaches in India and Nepal to
enable surplus water flow to the Ganga basin even after meeting the future
needs.
New Delhi made an overall assessment of the requirement of water of Nepal,
India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh proposed 83 storage dams in the upper reaches
of the Ganga, of which 31 would be in Nepal and 52 in India, some of which ares
shown in Fig. 10.9. It was estimated that the dry-season flow of the Ganga could
be increased to about 5,100 cumecs (180,000 cusecs) by releasing water from these
reservoirs in India.
The stored water in the reservoirs of Nepal could be released through natural
rivers, joining the Ganga. A part of it could be diverted to the Mahananda and
the Karatoya to augment their flows in West Bengal and Bangladesh respectively.
The canal could also be used for navigation and be a river route of Nepal to the
sea. Moreover, the storages would have high potential for generating hydro-electric
power at a cheap rate to boost industries in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Power
generation as per Dhaka's estimate would be more than 10,000 MW.
The 1983 Bangladesh proposal envisaged optimum increase of surface water
resources of the Ganga basin to 0.5 million cubic metre (446 million acre-feet) in a
year. It also assessed the total demand in the Ganga basin for various purposes by
the co-basin States as under:
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