Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the much awaited Subarnarekha Irrigation project through video conference on 19 July 2021.
During this launch, water from the project was released through five canals at Puruduhi near Kathpal in Baripada block in Mayurbhanj district. The project will have the irrigation potential of around 15,359 hectares of land (ha) in five blocks of Mayurbhanj district.
With this project Mayurbhanj became the first district in the country to provide piped water to every household. However, irrigation is of the priority, and land will be released to 10,000 ha land from the Deo irrigation project before the kharif season.
The Subarnarekha Irrigation project constructed with an investment of around Rs 768 crore, will result in availing irrigation facility to over 1.09 lakh ha in Mayurbhanj and Balasore district. By January 2024, the project will create irrigation potential of 70,000 ha in the
Brief History Post flood during 1972, the multi-crore Subarnarekha project was envisaged. Accordingly, a tripartite agreement was signed among the co-basin states of earlier Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal on 17 January 1976. The construction work commenced during 1989 when Nilamani Routray was the Chief Minister of Odisha.