The State Government has created irrigation facilities for 13.20 lakh hectares of land during the last 10 years between April 2009 and March 2019.

Water Resources Minister Raghunandan Das informed this in the State Assembly in response to a question of Congress member Santosh Singh Saluja on Thursday.

“There were irrigation facilities for 28.69 hectares of land in the State by March 2009. Such facilities were created for 13.20 lakh more hectares of land from April 2009 and March 2019. Thus, irrigation facilities have been created for a total of 41.89 lakh hectares of land by March 2019,” said the Minister.

He further informed that 15 mega and medium irrigation projects, 153 small irrigation projects, 117 large lift irrigation projects, 832 addibandha and 1450 community lift irrigation projects are under construction.

Besides, 25 new small irrigation projects are being constructed with support of the Nabard and 15 more small irrigation projects would be undertaken this year. These apart, 20,000 deep bore wells and 600 shallow bore-wells have been targeted to be completed

this year.

The Minister also informed that irrigation facilities have been created for 1.73 lakh hectares of land out of total 3.46 lakh hectares of cultivable land in Balangir district. To provide irrigation facilities to 35 per cent of cultivable lands in the district, the Lower Suktel project, Lower Indra irrigation project, 29 small projects and 37 check dams are being constructed. Besides, there are plans to dig 1,500 deep bore-wells in the district, the Minster said.