Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has directed to maintain the quality as per the approved specifications in executing the Swan river channelization, which was the biggest flood control project of the State. He also directed to ensure that no mining activity was done in the district and all required material was extracted from the identified authorized sources only.The Chief Minister, who was presiding over the governing body meeting of H.P Swan river Channelization Authority here on Wednesday evening said that the area channelized should be simultaneously reclaimed for agriculture use so that farmers could start earning livelihood. He also directed that the works of channelization of Swan river and all its tributaries should be completed in a phased manner so that the channelized land could be saved from the fury of floods in the future. He said that the channelization of Swan was one of the ambitious projects of the State government which would protect the thousands of fertile land of the Una district from floods. This would go a long way in increasing the food grain production in the district which would benefit the entire State as a whole.
Virbhadra Singh expressed satisfaction that the target for providing 137 kilometers embankment and reclaiming 2200 hectares area fixed for the year 2014-15 had been achieved by spending Rs. 308 crore.Irrigation & Public Health Minister Smt. Vidya Stokes informed that the work of embankment of all tributaries of Swan was under process and would be completed in the scheduled time frame. She said that quality control was being monitored through third party investigation in regular interval of time. Besides, the quality control laboratory had also been established at Badukhar, she added.
Industries Minister Shri Mukesh Agnihotri said that the work of the Flood Monitoring Centre had been already been taken on right bank of the Swan river near Jhalera bridge which would be completed by the end of October, this year. He said that farmers had already started agricultural activities wherever the irrigation facility was available on the reclaimed land, however, a master plan would be prepared to irrigate the entire reclaimed land so that farmers could start crop cultivation on large scale.Additional Chief Secretary Shri P.C Dhiman said that Rs. 323 crore would be spent under this project during this year out of which Rs. 107 crore had already been made available from the State budget.Chief Secretary Shri Vineet Chowdhary, Additional Chief Secretaries Smt. Upma Chowdhary, Shri V.C Pharka and Shri Tarun Shridhar, Principal Secretary Smt. Manisha Nanda, Enginner-in-Chief (IPH) Shri M.S Kanwar and other senior officers also attended the meeting.