Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP):

Future Life Line of Rajasthan

Abstract: The increase in water demand coupled with inequitable distribution of water in
river basins within the state and temporal and spatial variations in rainfall, make
the water scenario in the State of Rajasthan challenging. This necessitates
harvesting river basins having surplus yield and transferring the same to the
river basins having deficit yield. Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) is
planned to harvest intra-basin transfer of water within the Chambal River basin,
to utilize surplus water resources available in some of its sub-basins namely,
Kalisindh and Parwati, ensuring sustainable water resources development and
fulfilling the various water demands as well as mitigating draught situation in
water deficit Banas sub-basin.
The project is targeted to provide safe drinking water to 13 parched districts of
Rajasthan as well as cater to the demand of industries in and around basin area.
The project envisages construction of structural interventions in the form of
Storage/diversion structures and water conductor system primarily meant to
divert and deliver the required quantum of water for the scheme.

Introduction

The existence and development of human civilization is built on water. Although, water
resources are sufficient for the sustainability of human civilization, yet their temporal and
spatial distribution does not coincide with irrigation, domestic and industrial requirements,
creating water deficit. The mismatch between demand and availability of water in river sub-
basins can be counteracted through inter or intra-basin transfer of water from surplus basins
to the deficit basins.
Rajasthan is the largest state in India with geographical area of 342.52 Lac Ha spread over
in between latitudes 23°30’ to 30°11’ North, longitudes 69°29’ to 78°17’ East. Rajasthan
covers about 10.4% geographical area, 5.5 % population, 19% livestock and 14% cultivable
land of the country, whereas it holds only 1.16% of the country’s surface water and 1.72% of
ground water. Regarding ground water status there are 295 blocks and out of this only 50
blocks are safe, 38 semi critical, 10 critical and 194 over exploited & 3 saline.

The surface water Rajasthan has been divided into 15 River basins and one outside basin
area. Total surface water availability at 50 % dependability estimated about 25.38 BCM and
another 17.88 BCM water is allocated as State’s shares from trans-boundary river waters
under various inter-state agreements. It is estimated that out of fifteen river basins surplus
water is available only in Chambal and Mahi basin. In rainy season Kunnu, Kul, Parwati,
Kalisindh, Mez, and Chakan sub-basins are also having surplus yield, while Banas,
Banganga, Ghambhiri and Parvati sub-basins are deficit in yield.

The spatial and temporal uneven distribution of water resources in Rajasthan is one of the
major constraints to sustainable water resources development. There is wide seasonal
variation in the flow of river and streams. It varies from peak flow in the monsoon season to
a trickle or drying up completely during late summer and early autumn. In order to have
optimum utilization of available water resources, the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project
(ERCP) is conceptualized for intra-basin transfer of water within the Chambal basin to utilize
surplus water resources available in some of its sub-basins namely, Kalisindh Sub-basin
and Parwati Sub-basin to ensure sustainable water resources development and fulfilling the
various water demand as well as mitigating draught situation in water deficit sub-basins
namely, Banas Sub-basin in same river catchment area.

Envisaged on the lines of the Indira Gandhi Canal in western Rajasthan, the project
proposes to make use of the excess water from Chambal River which is at present being
wasted thereby, providing safe drinking water and irrigation water to targeted population of
13 districts of eastern Rajasthan and en-route towns, tanks and villages as well as nearby
command area.

Water availability and demand

Chambal River, a principal tributary of Yamuna River, originates in the Vindhyan range near
Mhow in Indore District of Madhya Pradesh, at an elevation of 354 m above MSL, at latitude
22° 27' and longitude 73° 20'. The river flows through the States of Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Chambal Basin lies between longitudes 73° 20' and 79° 20'
and latitudes 22° 27' and 27° 20'. The catchment area of Chambal River up to outfall into
River Yamuna is 1,43,219 Sq. Km out of which 76,854 Sq. Km falls in Madhya Pradesh,
65,264 Sq. Km falls in Rajasthan and 1,101 Sq. Km falls in Uttar Pradesh. Main tributaries
of Chambal River are Siwana, Retam, Shipra and Choti Kalisindh in Madhya Pradesh,
Kalisindh, Parwati, Parwan and Banas in Rajasthan. There are eight Sub-basins in Chambal
Basin within Rajasthan, namely: Banas (47,060 Km2), Chakan (747.94 Km2), Chambal
Downstream (4,571.56 Km2), Chambal Upstream (4,254.99 Km2), Kalisindh (10,068.86
Km2), Kunu (774.57 Km2), Mej (5,803.76 Km2) and Parwati (5,020.82 Km2).

The Gauge and discharge at hydrological observation station established by Central Water
Commission at Barod, Khatoli and Tonk on Kalisindh, Parwati and Banas respectively were
collected and duly checked for consistency for estimation of water availability at proposed
project sites.

The water availability at the respective proposed sites has been calculated after accounting
for the upstream surplus yield of Madhya Pradesh state and also considering the 10% yield
from upstream state. As such, the water availability for the two cases namely (i) Case-I:
considering the yield exclusively from Rajasthan catchment and entire surplus yield from
Madhya Pradesh catchment area, (ii) Case-II: considering the yield exclusively from
Rajasthan and only 10% of the catchment yield from Madhya Pradesh catchment area. For
these two cases, the water availability has been firmed up on the basis of observed flow
series of the G&D sites. Based on the derived yield series, net water availability with
average, 50% and 75% dependability yield have been worked out and tabulated below:

Case I: ERCP-Overall Water Availability for the Scheme

(Includes Rajasthan Catchment yield along with surplus yield from U/s Madhya
Pradesh State)
Component Water Availability (MCM)
Average 50% 75%
Barrage on Hanotiya on Kunnu River 543 526 350
Barrage at Ramgarh on Tributary of Parbati 219 209 100
Barrage at Mahalpur U/s of Khatoli 2909 2788 1481
Barrage at Navnera on Kalisindh 4925 3420 1039
Doongri 347 289 82
Mej 333 304 203
Isarda 398 341 137
TOTAL 9674 7878 3393

Case II: ERCP-Overall Water Availability for the Scheme

(Includes Rajasthan Catchment yield along with 10% yield from U/s Madhya Pradesh
State)
Component Water Availability(MCM)
Average 50% 75%
Barrage on Hanotiya on Kunnu River 158 153 100
Barrage at Ramgarh on Tributary of Parbati 218 208 100
Barrage at Mahalpur U/s of Khatoli 957 919 514
Barrage at Navnera on Kalisindh 2401 1707 608
 Doongri 347 289 82
Mej 333 304 203
Isarda 398 341 137
TOTAL 4413 3921 1744

The overall demand of the scheme is to the tune of 3510 MCM of which 49% accounts for
drinking purpose only. The irrigation demand is pegged at 1500 MCM which is around 43%
of the total demand while the rest is put aside for industrial usage tabulated below.

Description Total Demand (MCM) % Demand

Drinking Water 1723.5 49%

Industrial Demand 286.4 8%

Irrigation Demand 1500.4 43%

Total 3510 100%

Project Components

In the present case, the overall demand for the project is about 3500 MCM and therefore an
overall exclusive storage for demand management only, to the tune of 65% to 75% in the
system is required to bridge the gap between demand and supply. Therefore, an average of
about 2407 MCM online storage in the system is required for its proper functioning.
Accordingly, new storage sites as well as extra storage available in the existing reservoir
were carefully examined so as to achieve the overall targeted storage of about 2407 MCM
meant for demand management. Apart from it, there is requirement for storages in the
diversion barrage exclusively meant for minimising the cost of diversion channel. In the
present case, first five barrages act as primarily diversion barrages having coverall capacity
of about 534 MCM is also further required for minimising the capacity of diversion channel.
Apart from these two types of storage requirements, there is also requirement of to fill the
water in the enroute tanks facing the deficit to the tune of about 402 MCM.

As such, 6 Barrages along with a newly proposed dam (namely Doongri Dam) were
proposed as new storage sites along with enhancement of existing reservoirs which will
have a total new live storage capacity of about 2407 MCM. It may be noted that the deficit in
the enroute tanks to the tune of about 402 MCM are also to be met from the newly proposed
reservoirs as such the storage capacity of the existing tanks will not be available for the
demand management of the ERCP scheme. In fact, it will cater to its own demand as such
the storage capacity of these tanks should not be accounted for demand management of
ERCP project. Moreover, it should also be noted that the initial four barrages proposed
before crossing of Chambal river as well as Mej barrage storage will act as diversion
storage only and will help in reducing the diversion capacity requirement of diversion canal.
However, it will have only

Keeping the objectives in mind, some of the structural interventions in the form of
Storage/diversion structures and water conductor system are proposed for this scheme in
order to be able to divert and deliver the required quantum of water for the scheme.

The proposed structural intervention in the form of barrages are primarily meant for
diversion of surplus water with optimal diversion capacity of the water conductor system and
also in the form of reservoirs which will act as a storage for supplying the water during the
non-monsoon and lean period. The details of the proposed structural intervention in the
form of barrages / dam are enumerated below along with the proposed water conductor
system for conveyance of the required quantum of water at desired locations.
(i) List of proposed structural intervention in the form of barrages and dam in the
proposed scheme
Sl. Structure River Location Height FRL Gross
No. Name of (m) Storage
structu (MCM)
re (m)
1 Kunnu Kunnu 25°15’56.7” N, 77°13’20” E 20.0 306 56.97
Barrage
2 Ramgarh Kul 25°18’ 36.7” N, 76°39’03” E 26.0 240 50.49
Barrage
3 Mahalpur Parwati 25°19’46” N, 76°33’50” E 29.0 230 162.20
Barrage
4 Navnera Kalisind 25°29’03” N, 76°18’58” E 26.0 217 226.65
Barrage h
5 Rathod Banas 26°10’34” N, 76°11’07” E 15.0 247 143.09
Barrage
6 Doongri Dam Banas 26°07’58” N, 76°38’02” E 28.0 230 2098.51
7 Mej Barrage Mej 25°40’03” N, 76°15’46” E 20.0 210 50.80

(ii) Proposed Water Conveyor System in the scheme

A combination of open channel flow and tunnels with limited number of lift systems has
been proposed in the scheme to divert required quantum of water at minimum required
conveyance capacity. The details of components of water conductor system in the form of
gravity canal, tunnel and pumping main required for the scheme are enumerated below.

Sl. No. Particulars Length (Km)

1. Gravity Canal 965
2. Tunnel Gravity 4.5
3. Pressure Mains/ Delivery Mains 141
4. Natural Stream 157.5
Total Length of the Water Conductor System 1268