Team Goemkarponn
ANJUNEM: A team from the Central Water Commission (CWC) toured the proposed Virdi Dam in Maharashtra, the Anjunem Dam, and the Sankhalim and Bicholim water storage facilities.
During the Goa region inspection, they were accompanied by Pramod Badami, the head engineer of the Water Resource Department (WRD), along with other officials. However, because the visit and inspection were also kept under wraps, the team didn’t say anything about them.
According to sources, the team checked the two reservoirs’ capacities as well as the water levels in the dams. The visit becomes more significant in light of the Karnataka government’s attempts to begin construction on the Bhandura dam in order to finish the River Mhadei’s in-basin diversion.
While Paithankar, the chief engineer of CWC, claimed that the inspection was generic, Badami said that it was a routine check of the dams. The other members were director Ajay and CWC director (PAO) Raju Kumar.
However, it has been reported that the three-person CWC team’s primary visit was to the Virdi dam since the Maharashtra government needed permission from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to move on with the project.
The delegation visited the Virdi dam site after examining the Anjunem dam, where executive engineer Yadav of Maharashtra Water Resources, deputy engineer Mangaonkar, and other authorities were present.
Environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar announced that Karnataka has begun work at Nerse in Khanapur taluka to construct the Bhadura dam, amid protests from campaigners concerned about attempts to secretly divert the River Mhadei.
He claimed that without getting approval from the MoEF&CC, Karnataka had begun construction at Kankumbi for the Kalasa dam in 2006 and had finished the project in an attempt to divert water. He insisted that the Goa government oppose both of the neighboring states’ schemes.
