New Delhi: The chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana on Tuesday signed the Kishau Multipurpose Project agreement in the presence of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah and Union Jal Shakti Minister C. R. Patil, marking a major step towards implementation of the long-pending project.
The agreement provides for the construction of a 232.6-metre-high concrete gravity dam on the Tons River, which flows along the border of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The project will have a water storage capacity of 1,562 million cubic metres, irrigate 97,000 hectares of land and generate 1,476 million units of clean hydropower, according to an official statement.
Addressing the meeting, Shah said the agreement was historic and expressed confidence that its completion would become an important chapter in history. He said the project would benefit Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi in one way or another.
Shah said the most important aspect of the agreement was that all six states had given their consent and signed it. He congratulated the chief ministers of the six states and Patil for playing an important role in bringing the project to this stage.
The Union home minister said the Union government and the six chief ministers of the Yamuna basin states were committed to completing the project at the earliest.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central government has declared the Kishau Multipurpose Project a National Project, Shah said.
The Centre will bear approximately 90% of the financial burden of the project, while the remaining 10% will be borne by the participating states in accordance with the 1994 agreement.
Shah said the Uttarakhand government had certain difficulties and that the government of India had assured the state that efforts would be made to accommodate its demands under the schemes of the Union government. He added that the Centre would also assist Uttarakhand in bearing the financial burden that may fall upon the state.
Shah further said Delhi would be the biggest beneficiary of the Kishau Multipurpose Project.
He said that when the waters of the Yamuna were allocated, the environmental flow of the river was not calculated and all the available water was distributed among the states, leaving no water for the river itself.
According to Shah, 25% of the water will become available through the Kishau Multipurpose Project agreement, which he said would be highly beneficial for both Delhi and the Yamuna and would also contribute to environmental conservation.
Shah said continuous work had been underway to clean the Yamuna since Rekha Gupta became Chief Minister of Delhi under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He expressed confidence that the goal of a clean Yamuna would be achieved by 2029.
He said the Yamuna eventually merges with the Ganga at Prayagraj and, therefore, the dream of a clean Ganga would remain incomplete until the Yamuna was cleaned.
Shah said that since Modi became PM, this was the tenth water dispute that was now set to be resolved.
He added that the government had undertaken an initiative to resolve serious disputes that had continued for the past 50 years.
According to Shah, the dispute over the Lakhwar Multipurpose Project was resolved in August 2018, while the Shahpur Kandi Dam Project dispute was also settled in the same month.
In 2019, the dispute over the Renukaji Multipurpose Dam Project in the Upper Yamuna Basin was resolved. In 2021, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reached an agreement on the Ken-Betwa Link Project, benefiting the water-stressed Bundelkhand region.
The revised Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal River Link project moved forward in 2024, while the scheme for transferring water from Hathinikund to the Yamuna through an underground pipeline was approved in February 2024.
The dispute over the rehabilitation of families displaced by the Narmada Project was resolved in July 2026, while the dispute over water sharing between Bihar and Jharkhand in the Son Basin was settled in August 2026.
Shah said the period from 2018 to 2026 under Modi’s leadership would be remembered as a period in which almost all water disputes, from Kashmir to Uttar Pradesh, were resolved.
He said the foundation for these resolutions was laid in meetings of the Zonal Councils, and the Ministry of Jal Shakti efficiently took the agreements forward.
