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OTHER DEPARTMENTS
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IRRIGATION AND POWER DEPARTMENT
The Irrigation and Power Department deals with major and medium irrigation works, hydro-electric projects, minor irrigation works, water-supply and drainage works and flood control works.
Organisation: The department is headed by the Secretary to the Government who is assisted by Chief Engineers in charge of major and medium irrigation projects and water-supply and development schemes in the State and the Director of Minor Irrigation in charge of minor irrigation projects in the State. The Superintending Engineer who is responsible to the Chief Engineer and the Director of Minor Irrigation for the works in their respective spheres is placed in charge of a circle normally consisting of four to five divisions. The division is headed by the Executive Engineer. Each division normally comprises four to five sub-divisions. The sub-division is placed in charge of a sub-divisional officer which is divided further into four to five sections each in charge of an overseer. The section is generally formed for maintenance of about 2,023.430 hectares (5,000 acres) of irrigated land or where capital expenditure of rupees one to two lakhs is involved.
The following is a brief description of the various projects under the Irrigation and Power department.
Ekburji Tank Project: The project is one of the Medium Projects taken up during the Second Five Year Plan to provide a source of irrigation water for the agriculturists. This is the first pilot project in the district.
The project envisages construction of an earthen dam of 2722 feet in length to harness a catchment area of 29.02 sq. miles on the Chandrabhaga river in the Washim tahsil of the district.
The dam impounds a storage of 498.92 mcft. of water. The area submerged under the lake is 633.25 acres.
Nirguna River Project: The project envisages construction of an earthen dam across the river Nirguna, near village Chondi with an ungated spill-way on the right clank, to impound 1,109.85 mcft. of gross storage The right bank canal measuring 39 km. in length will take off directly from the dam to irrigate an area of 14,133 acres from Balapur tahsil of the Akola district.
The length of the dam is 1,777 metres and the height 25 68 metres with an ungated spillway of 214 metres in length to discharge 59,270 cusecs of flood water. The catchment area is
195.55 sq. km.
Morna Project: The Morna Project is one of the biggest medium irrigation schemes in the district. On completion of this scheme, the irrigation facilities will be available for 13,000 acres of land in Akola and Balapur tahsils.
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