Ranchi, Oct. 30: The state water resources department has given its go-ahead to an ambitious irrigation scheme that will benefit around 55,000 people living in Kisko area of Lohardaga district.

The Rs 47.96-crore project involves construction of a 196.35m-long earthen dam on Daharbati Nala, a tributary of the Sone river, in Kisko, located some 15km from the district headquarters.

State water resources minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary, who cleared the file last evening, said the project would be completed by March 2019.

The minister further said the irrigation project would help boost the agriculture sector and create livelihood opportunities in nine gram panchayats in the area, which was notorious for large-scale migration of human resources, including child labourers, due to paucity of work.

"I have directed officials concerned to initiate the process for floating tenders soon so that the groundwork can be started soon. We have decided to release Rs 2.40 crore during the current fiscal for the purpose," he added.

The mean annual rainfall across Lohardaga district is 1,154mm, 85 per cent of which is received between June and September, the peak of the monsoon. However, Kisko area, according to local villagers, has always received erratic showers. Further, due to higher altitude, rainwater flows down to low-lying areas easily, adding little to the underground reserves and thereby, making conventional irrigation difficult in Kisko.

Thus, department sources said the rainfall runoff model, developed by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, would be adopted to store rainwater at the proposed Daharbati dam and around 7.75km-long pipelines would be laid to take the water to agriculture fields.

Once ready, the dam, with a height of 20.5 meter and upper width of 6.20 meter, will help irrigate kharif crops spread over 968.14 acres and rabbi cultivation on over 900 acres.

Opposition leaders alleged that the timing of the announcement of the project was politically motivated. A by-election is due in the Lohardaga Assembly constituency and Choudhary's Ajsu party is struggling hard to retain the seat that felt vacant after former party MLA K.K. Bhagat was jailed in an attempt-to-murder case. The BJP has reportedly agreed to support the Ajsu Party candidate in the bypoll, though a formal announcement in this regard is yet to come.

The bypoll was likely to be held on November 21, but the Election Commission last week deferred the polling in view of the upcoming panchayat elections.

Choudhary, however, denied the allegation.