In what comes as a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi government's flagship project — strengthen water infrastructure — a report published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch claims that it will have an investment potential worth $270 billion over the next 15 years.
Of this $270 billion, a whopping $168 billion will be required for river linking, $94 billion for piped water supply, $4.5 billion for Prime Minister's Krishi Sinchai Yojana and $3.8 billion for Namami Gange. These projects will be jointly implemented by the Centre and the state governments with the involvement of the private sector.
In its comprehensive report titled ''India Water Infra: A multi-billion dollar opportunity,'' Bank of America Merrill Lynch said that these initiatives, under the newly formed Jal Shakti ministry, is a big positive — especially when 21 cities in the country are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020 and nearly 600 million people face extreme water stress.
SETTING NEW GOALS
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REPORT BREAKS DOWN THE INVESTMENTS NEEDED FOR SCHEMES TO SUCCEED
- The interlinking of rivers will irrigate 35-mn hectares (25%) of farms & 34 GW of hydro power capacity
- It would involve construction of 15,000 km canals and 3,000 dams
- For piped water supply, Centre needs to provide the lion’s share of funding to achieve 100% by 24
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Bank of America co-head India (research) Amish Shah, who has penned the report, said that even though water is a state subject, the Jal Shakti ministry has been set up so that all water-related programmes will be consolidated for holistic planning and execution with active participation of states and private sector under Jal Shakti Abhiyan.
He clarified that the investment numbers are estimates by the Bank of America and not by the ministry. However, he added that the Centre may explore various revenue models to tap the investment potential as done in the past in roads, power sectors.
He informed that the interlinking of rivers will irrigate 35 million hectares (25%) of farms and 34 GW of hydropower capacity. It would involve the construction of 15,000 km canals and 3,000 dams. "However, the government will have to overcome key challenges such as building consensus on water-sharing agreement amongst states, implementation issues as witnessed in case of Ken-Batwa project, drinking water and electricity needs of people across six districts in the two states," he noted.
