Workers at the Subernarekha Multipurpose Project in Chandil. File picture

Jamshedpur, Aug. 26: It’s testing times for the Subernarekha Multipurpose Project (SMP).

Hanging in balance for more than 25 years, the estimated cost of the state government’s ambitious irrigation plan, SMP, has swelled more than 50 times its initial cost.

The fifth estimate done recently projected SMP’s cost at Rs 5,200 crore.

“We have prepared the new estimate, which will be sent to Union government for approval soon. In 2005, the cost was estimated to be Rs 4,500 crore,” said special secretary of water resource department A.K. Rastogi.

Started in the 1982-83 fiscal, the initial cost of the SMP was pegged at Rs 100 crore. Designed to irrigate more than 2,00,000 hectare of land in Bihar, Bengal and Orissa, the project has been delayed due to various reasons like forest land clearance and compensation for those displaced.

Officials in SMP attributed the project cost escalation to various factors.

“Delay in getting the forest land clearance is the major hurdle in the completion of the project. Only 40 per cent of the project is complete. This has led to an increase in the compensation amount. Moreover, the price of raw materials has also gone up,” said an SMP official.

When the project was first reviewed in 1977, the deadline for the completion was set as 1987-88 but the ground work started only in 1982-83.

The state government had recently revised the deadline and set it for 2010. Officials in water resources department said they were awaiting clearance of forest land, only after which would the project gain momentum.

“We are awaiting the clearance of 1,665 hectare of forest land, part of which is a catchment area and the rest would fall under the dam and canal construction region. The Union government has given us conditional clearance for the forest land. It would be handed over after we fulfil the criteria fixed by the government,” said Rastogi.

He also said that they are looking forward to completing all the criteria for acquiring forest land by October this year. The officials hoped to provide irrigation facilities to 50,000 hectare farmland in the Singhbhum Kolhan region soon after they get the necessary forest land clearance. At present, around 2,000 hectare of farmland is being irrigated by the water provided by SMP.

“At present, we need about 1,800 hectares of non-forest land anywhere in the state. Later, we would notify this as forest land and initiate the plantation drive on it,” said regional chief conservator of forest A.K. Gupta.

Government has released funds for compensation of the displaced people but it has not reached them.

Meanwhile, the forest department and officials of water resource department reviewed the progress of various projects in the Singhbhum Kolhan region that are awaiting forest land clearance at a meeting held at forest rest house in Mango.

The project includes Suru in Seraikela, Sunwa and Natti in Chaibasa.