Six States and Delhi Sign Kishau Project Pact; Himachal CM Calls It a Major Victory

Five States and Delhi signed an agreement on Tuesday for the implementation of the 422 MW Kishau multipurpose project, which will be built at an estimated cost of ₹15,624 crore on the Tons river along the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border.

The agreement was signed in New Delhi in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Jal Shakti Minister C. R. Patil. The signatories included the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana — Yogi Adityanath, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Bhajan Lal Sharma, Rekha Gupta and Nayab Singh Saini.

Describing the agreement as historic, Mr. Shah said it marked the tenth water dispute set to be resolved since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. He said the Union government would bear approximately 90% of the project's financial burden, with the remaining 10% shared by the participating States and the Union Territory in line with the 1994 agreement. Delhi, he added, would be the biggest beneficiary.

The project envisages a 232.6-metre-high concrete gravity dam with a water storage capacity of 1,562 million cubic metres. It is expected to irrigate 97,000 hectares and generate 1,476 million units of clean hydropower.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said his government's efforts had broken an eight-year deadlock over the State's financial share. He said the previous BJP government had agreed to contribute ₹800 crore, which his government refused in the interest of the State given its limited resources.

Mr. Sukhu said Himachal would bear the greatest loss from the project because its population would be displaced, and that asking the State to shoulder an additional financial burden would therefore be unfair. He added that the State's contribution to national progress deserved suitable compensation.

He said Himachal would receive 1,000 million units per year from the project's power component, likely worth more than ₹1,000 crore once construction is complete, calling the outcome a major victory in the State's fight for a legitimate share in power projects.