Renuka dam gets forest clearance: Why it's good news for Delhi-NCR

Renuka dam gets forest clearance, to be ready by 2030. (Source: Image/X)

Decades after Rs 6,947-crore Renuka multi-purpose dam was first conceived by experts to ensure drinking water supply to the National Capital Region (NCR), the project has finally received forest clearance from the Centre, The Tribune reported.

"The clearance will facilitate the diversion of 909 hectares of forest land for the construction of the dam," Vasanth Kiran Babu, Conservator of Forests, Nahan, was quoted by PTI as confirming the stage-II final approval granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on June 4.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project in December 2021 in a virtual event and it will come upon the Giri river at Dadahu in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh.

As per the report, land acquisition has been completed and the dam authorities are in the process of finalising the technical details. The initial phase involves constructing three 1.5-km diversion tunnels to temporarily redirect the Giri, a tributary of the Yamuna,ensuring minimal disruption to its natural flow. This is critical to laying the foundation for the 148-m-high rock-fill dam, which is expected to be operational by 2030.

With the construction of the dam, at least 41 villages and 7,000 people will be affected and 346 families will be rendered homeless. A total of 1,508 hectares of land, including 1,231 hectares of agricultural land spread across 32 villages, 909 hectares of reserved forestland and 49 hectares of the Renuka wildlife sanctuary, would be submerged in the project. A 24-km tunnel would be constructed for the project, the report added.

The project has a chequered history. It was earlier proposed as a 40 MW hydroelectric project in the 1960s. Its detailed project report (DPR) was formulated by the HP State Electricity Board in 1993 with the objective of partially meeting drinking water requirement of Delhi. The same was submitted to the Central Water Commission (CWC) on March 31, 1993, for according it the techno-economic clearance, The Tribune reported.

After the DPR was cleared from the agencies concerned, it was in May 1994, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the utilisation and allocation of the waters of the upper Yamuna which included the Renuka storage dam, it added.

According to the report, the dam will be designed to supply a firm water supply of 23 cumecs to Delhi and act as a flood control measure during monsoon. The central government declared it a national project on February 26,2009, fetching 90 per cent central funds towards the water component.

Earlier, the project was scheduled for completion by November 2014. However, its construction was put on hold in 2010-11 by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) due to objections to the environment clearance granted to it. Over the past several years, the project cost shot up from Rs 3,572.19 crore to Rs 6,947 crore. It was given stage-I environmental clearance on February 20,2015, which was later extended, the report added.