Cabinet approves Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the second and third phase of Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project to be implemented with financial assistance of the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The project cost is Rs 10,211 crore. It will be implemented over 10 years in two phases, each of six years with two overlapping years, from April 2021 to March 2031. The share of external funding is Rs. 7,000 crore of the total project cost, and balance Rs. 3,211 crore is to be borne by the concerned implementing agencies.
Contribution of the Central government is Rs. 1,024 crore as loan liability and Rs. 285 crore as counterpart funding for Central Component.
The project aims to rehabilitate 736 dams in India.
The project originally aimed to improve 223 dams in India. Later the count was increased. More than 80% of dams in India are 25 years old. There are 209 dams that are over 100 years old. They were built in the era when design practices and safety considerations were below current norms. Several of these dams are in need of structural safety.
The project is being implemented by the Central Dam Safety Organization of Central Water Commission.
India ranks third after China and USA in number of large dams. There are 5,264 large dams in India and 437 are under construction.