In an election year, the Ashok Gehlot government has finally begun work on a key Rs 2,500 crore project that will involve building two new dams on inter-state rivers Sabarmati and Sei, very near to the border with Gujarat, to quench the thirst of western Rajasthan.

These dams have been a major demand of the area and are an important factor in the Rajasthan elections scheduled later this year, with 10 towns and 738 villages to get drinking water from them.

On Tuesday, the Gehlot government invited bids for both projects to build the dams within the next four years. The chief minister had announced both projects in last year’s budget.

Sabarmati is an inter-state river with nearly 20 percent catchment area in Rajasthan and the rest in Gujarat. Sei is its tributary.

“In order to harness the full potential of Sabarmati River as well as its tributaries Sei and Wakal, it is desirable to have diversion sites on these said rivers as close as possible to the interstate boundary,” says the bid document of the Rajasthan government reviewed by News18.

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The Gehlot government says the idea is the “diversion of surplus water of Sabarmati Basin” to Jawai Dam in Udaipur. This will ensure filling of Jawai Dam across Jawai River to augment water supply demand in Pali and Sirohi districts of Rajasthan.

“The government strategies behind such activities are to develop and manage water resources on a long-term basis which will in turn help in increasing availability and reliability of water supplies besides stabilising sustainable agricultural production,” the document says.

Water demand in Rajasthan

Jawai Dam is the largest dam of western Rajasthan, built in 1957 as a major irrigation project across Jawai River to cater to nearly 39,000 hectares of irrigation area.

Later, due to scarcity of drinking water in Pali and Sirohi districts, some part of stored water was reserved every year for drinking purpose. Due to continuous increase in the drinking water demand coupled with deficit of water inflow in Jawai Dam, the two new dams have been envisaged to utilise the surplus water that is available in the Sabarmati Basin.

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The Gehlot government says these projects will ensure access to safe drinking water to populace in the parched areas of Pali and Sirohi districts by diverting water to the existing Jawai Dam.

Ten towns — Pali, Rohat, Jaitaran, Sumerpur, Bali, Desuri, Sojat, Raipur, Shivganj and Marwar — plus 560 villages of Pali district and 178 villages of Sirohi district will hence get water for drinking purpose. It was the Vasundhara Raje government that began groundwork of these two dams in 2016 by marking a consultancy study for them.

The new dams on Sei and Sabarmati rivers will become reservoirs from which water will be supplied to the Jawai dam through tunnel pipelines in one of the most challenging projects to be executed in Rajasthan. The Gehlot government is keen to start work before the model code of conduct for the year-end Rajasthan elections is announced.

This article first appeared on News18 and is available here.