Chambal aqueduct set to facilitate water supply from river link project in Rajasthan

A new 2.3-km-long aqueduct on the Chambal river in Rajasthan is set to facilitate the supply of drinking and irrigation water from the revised Parvati-Kalisindh-Chambal link project to as many as 17 districts. The link project has been integrated with the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) and included in the national perspective plan by the special committee constituted for river linking.

The memorandum of agreement for the project’s implementation was signed between the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments on December 17, 2024. As part of the link project, a provision has been made to supply water to the large and medium irrigation projects and dams located in the project area on the basis of technical and financial feasibility.

Water Resources Minister Suresh Singh Rawat, who inspected the aqueduct construction work at Guhata in Bundi district on Monday (February 9, 2026), described it as a “milestone in water engineering”. The aqueduct, for which the work started in May 2025, has an internal width of 41.25 metres and a height of 7.7 metres.

Mr. Rawat said the construction work, taken up at a cost of ₹2,230 crore in the link project’s first phase, would be completed by June 2028. He walked about 2 km while thoroughly inspecting each point of the aqueduct, designed to transport water from the source to the distribution point with the utilisation of gravity.

The aqueduct will connect Pipalda Samel village in Kota district’s Digod tehsil at one end and Guhata on the other. The water from the Navnera barrage, built on Kalisindh, will be lifted into the Mej river and transported from the Mej barrage through a feeder to the Galwa, Bisalpur and Isarda dams.

The construction of the new aqueduct will also provide an additional route for public transport. Mr. Rawat said the aqueduct would ensure the success of the ambitious project, being implemented at a cost of ₹90,000 crore and stipulating the transfer of excess water from the Chambal river basin to the regions facing water scarcity for the benefit of a 3.25 crore population.

The previous Congress government had demanded the national project status for ERCP, fixing the share of the Centre and the State in the expenditure in the ratio of 90:10. The project is expected to resolve the water scarcity issue in eastern and south-eastern districts in the State at least till 2051.