With the press of a button, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the ₹9,800-crore Saryu Nahar National Project, which was pending for the past 40 years, at Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh.
The canal system is expected to benefit lakhs of farmers in the eastern part of the state who had been dealing with water shortage and irrigation issues. The Saryu Nahar National Project began in 1978, but the work was delayed due to what officials said was a lack of continuity of budgetary support, interdepartmental coordination, and adequate monitoring.
Two years after Prime Minister Modi came to power at the Centre, the project was brought under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana in 2016 with the target to complete it in a time-bound manner. According to the Prime Minister, the project which remained incomplete for four decades was then finished in only four years.
The Prime Minister arrived in Balrampur at around 1pm on Saturday and took the stage along with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and other senior officials and politicians.
