SHIMLA: Work on Renuka dam in Sirmaur district will start by the end of year, after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs of Centre approves the proposal. At 2018 price level, the project would cost around Rs 7,000 crores, against the earlier estimates of Rs 4,596.76 crores at 2015 price level.The revised cost of project is under consideration of the Central Water Commission, after which a proposal would be sent to the Technical Advisory Committee for approval and then to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.The project will provide 49,800 ha m (0.498 billion cubic metre) of live storage in its reservoir and a water supply to the tune of 23 cumecs to Delhi.In a written a reply to a question by Congress’s Renukaji MLA Vinay Kumar, multi purpose projects and power minister Anil Sharma stated that the Central Water Commission had approved the Rs 4596.76 Crore detailed project report at 2015 price level.He said that water supply component of project was Rs 4,325.43 crores and electricity generation Rs 271.33 crores. On the directions of the Union ministry of water resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation cost estimate is being revised, which works out to be around Rs 7,000 crores. He said this revised cost is under consideration of the Central Water Commission and would be sent to the Technical Advisory Committee for approval after evaluation.The Central government will allocate funds for the project only after the final approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, he said.On January 11, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur had attended the MoU signing ceremony for the construction Renukaji multipurpose dam project on Giri river in upper Yamuna basin in New Delhi.Chief ministers of five other states — Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi — were the other signatories.The dam will augment water availability for Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The project will also generate 40 MW of power during peak flow.The project is proposed to be executed by Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL). Since 90% of power component is being borne by the Delhi government, Himachal would get about 200 million units of electricity at Rs 0.30 per unit only.It would earn net revenue of about Rs 60 crore per annum to HPPCL and Rs 12 crore to the state government in its first year of operation. These revenue benefits would further increase over a period of time.

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