Officials at a review meeting. Pix: Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Jan. 15: The cost of the ambitious Subernarekha Multipurpose Project (SMP) has swelled to Rs 5,500 crore.

The earlier estimate, drawn last year, had amounted to Rs 5,200 crore. After a review meeting at Nirmal Guest House, officials blamed the hike in prices of raw material for the increase in estimates.

“The cost estimate is for the 2009-2010 fiscal. The estimates would now be sent to the state government for approval,” said engineer- in-chief of the project Ranjeet Singh.

He conceded that delay in implementation of the project had resulted in costs increasing every year.

Started in the ’80s, the initial cost of the project was pegged at Rs 100 crore. However, the project was delayed due to various reasons including non-payment of compensation to the displaced and forest land clearance.

“Due to the delay, the project cost has kept increasing and today it has almost become 55 times of the initial estimate. Apart from the cost of labourers, the raw material has also become dearer, adding to the total cost of this project,” said an official.

Singh said that a major portion of the project has failed to pick up as the Union has not provided clearance for use of forest lands.

“Work on the Chandil dam and right canal coming out of it is complete. However, the work on the left canal is awaiting clearance from the Union government as it is under forest lands,” he said, adding that the approval is expected soon.

Besides, a major part of the work on the Ichha dam still remains incomplete. Part of the dam and its catchment area falls under the forest land category.

The ambitious project has been designed to irrigate more than 2,00,000 hectares in Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. The project also envisages generating hydro-electricity from the water resource available in Chandil dam.

The work for generating electricity has also failed to begin at Chandil dam as a number of villagers still live on the catchment area and nearby places. Once complete, the Chandil dam would also help control floods in Jharkhand and neighbouring Bengal.