Context: On the occasion of World Water Day on April 22, a memorandum of agreement was signed between Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to implement the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP).

About Ken Betwa Link Project

• The Ken-Betwa Link Project lies in Bundelkhand, a drought-prone region, which spreads across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
• It is the first project under the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers. 
• Under this project, water from the Ken river will be transferred to the Betwa river. 
• Both these rivers are tributaries of river Yamuna.
• Development: Under Phase-I, one of the components — Daudhan dam complex and its appurtenances like Low Level Tunnel, High Level Tunnel, Ken-Betwa link canal and Power houses — will be completed. While in the Phase-II, three components — Lower Orr dam, Bina complex project and Kotha barrage — will be constructed.

Required Clearances: Generally, 4-5 types of clearances are required for the interlinking of river projects. These are: 

• Techno-economic (given by the Central Water Commission); 
• Forest Clearance and Environmental clearance (Ministry of Environment & Forests); 
• Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Plan of Tribal Population (Ministry of Tribal Affairs) and 
• Wildlife clearance (Central Empowered Committee).

Affect the Panna tiger reserve: Out of the 6,017 ha of forest area coming under submergence of Daudhan dam of Ken Betwa Link Project, 4,206 ha of area lies within the core tiger habitat of Panna Tiger Reserve.

Key Benefits

• The project is expected to provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hectares, drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 MW of hydropower.
• The project will be of immense benefit to the water-starved region of Bundelkhand, especially in the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.
• It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor for development in the country.

Additional Information
National Perspective Plan (NNP)

• For water resources development it envisaging inter basin water transfer in the country.
• The NPP comprised two components: (i) Himalayan Rivers Development; and  (ii) Peninsular Rivers Development. 
• Based on the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) identified 30 river links—16 under Peninsular component and 14 under Himalayan Component. 
• Later, the river linking idea was revived under the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. Ken Betwa Link Project is one of the 16 river linking projects under the Peninsular component.