Ranchi, July 17: Among the corridors of power, a file lies forgotten — the one with details of the Bhairwa water reservoir project.

Conceived and initiated by the then Bihar government in the early Eighties, the project has been caught up in red tape for five years in search of an elusive go-ahead from the state’s finance department.

Based in Ramgarh’s Gola block, the project aimed at providing irrigation facilities to around 4,800 hectares of farmland in the area, with water being drawn from Bhairwa, a tributary of Damodar.

Though a bulk of the work for the project has been completed, with almost all land donors receiving their compensation in accordance with Jharkhand High Court orders, a dearth of funds has stalled the “river closure” work of the project.

The Bihar government had approved Rs 2,019 lakh for the project in 1985. However, after the formation of Jharkhand the estimates jumped to Rs 6,727 lakh in 2003.

Interestingly, work on construction of the main dam, besides the construction of the left and right bank canals had been completed by September 2009, with the work of river closure about to be taken up.

This was when the high court decided to intervene and ordered that the landowners be paid compensation according to revised rates, necessitating a fresh revision of estimates. According to then estimates, the available funds with the water resources department would have been used up in doling out the revised compensation amounts.

Consequently, a revised estimate of Rs 11,667.23 lakh was prepared and sent to the state finance department for its approval. However, the finance department was not convinced and sent back the file to the water resources department with various queries and objections.

“The project has been lying in limbo for the last five years or so for want of a nod from the finance department. We have initiated a new move to seek the opinion of an empowered committee now,” confirmed chief water resources department engineer Ram Murat Ravidas.

A senior official of the water resources department added that the project, which was initially supposed to be funded by Nabard, was later tagged to the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme of the Centre. However, the Centre refused to release funds to the state until the groundwork was complete.

Sources also believed that a new estimate now might be necessary, as there has been a many-fold increase in labour and material costs in the last five years.

“The project has been a victim of petty politics. I will be taking up the issue with the chief minister and his deputies soon,” Ramgarh MLA Chandra Prakash Choudhary said, refusing to give details.

Incidentally, Gola happens to be the native place of JMM supremo Shibu Soren, who also heads the state coordination committee. The Ramgarh Assembly constituency is represented by Choudhary, who is also the science and technology minister.

Ajsu chief Sudesh Mahto, on the other hand, heads the water resources department, while Soren’s son Hemant heads the finance department.