Ajit Pawar announces ₹3200 crore project to address floods in western Maha

With the Kolhapur and Sangli districts facing floods nearly every year, leading in turn to huge losses, the Maharashtra government with help from the World Bank has decided to implement a ₹3,200 crore-worth project to address this problem in western Maharashtra.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday made the announcement while presenting the annual budget for 2024-25. “The Maharashtra government has decided to address the flood issue in both Kolhapur and Sangli with help from the World Bank. The additional water from these areas will be diverted to drought-prone areas,” Pawar said.

“The World Bank-aided ‘Maharashtra Responsive Development Programme’ costing ₹3,200 crore will be implemented to avoid loss of life and finance due to floods in Kolhapur and Sangli districts and to divert excess water to drought-affected areas,” he said.

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“During the last few years, especially in 2019, Sangli was completely under water. Over two lakh people were affected in Sangli. Even in Kolhapur, more than 200 villages were affected out of which 18 villages were completely submerged,” the deputy chief minister said.

There were huge losses in terms of livestock and human beings in Sangli and Kolhapur, he said.

While a lot of discussions took place and earlier, the Almatti Dam was blamed for the situation, the state government has now decided to implement the World Bank-aided ‘Maharashtra Responsive Development Programme’ to help divert excess rainwater to drought-affected areas around these districts.

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Apart from announcing this project, Pawar also made a budgetary provision for B J Medical College in Pune. “The state government has allotted necessary funds to construct a multipurpose auditorium at B J Medical College,” he said. The new metro line in Pune city will soon be approved and work on the same will start, the dy. CM further said.

Pawar announced that over 44 lakh farmers in Maharashtra will get a waiver of electricity bill dues. He also said that the State government has decided to bear the burden of farmers’ electricity bills and to provide free electricity to agriculture pumps up to 7.5 horsepower capacity.