Madhya Pradesh voices concerns over Rs 19,244 crore Tapi Basin mega recharge scheme (TBMRS)
Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis
BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh may have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the
Tapi Basin Mega Recharge Scheme
(TBMRS) — a massive inter-state
groundwater rejuvenation project
with Maharashtra, touted as the world's largest of its kind — but not everyone in the state is on board.
Last week, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra signed an MoU to jointly implement the project after a meeting of the Madhya Pradesh–Maharashtra Inter-State Control Board in Bhopal. The MoU was signed by MP chief minister Mohan Yadav and Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
A section of the MP bureaucracy, however, remains sceptical, expressing concern that the scheme offers limited benefits to the state compared to its financial burden, sources informed.
Some officials had earlier proposed alternatives that would include districts like Betul within Madhya Pradesh to ensure a more equitable distribution of benefits.
"During my tenure, the proposal involved transferring Madhya Pradesh's share of water to Maharashtra, which we did not agree to. I haven't seen the current MoU, but in any sub-surface storage, the downstream state often ends up withdrawing more water, and accurate water accounting becomes difficult.
We had identified a suitable site on the Tapti river, on the border of Betul and Khandwa districts, and prepared a detailed project report (DPR) for a reservoir that could irrigate over one lakh hectares.
Unfortunately, the project didn't progress as the government shifted focus due to the 2018 elections," said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
At the heart of the discontent is the scheme's financial structure.
With an estimated total cost of Rs 19,244 crore, Maharashtra is expected to bear 62% (Rs 11,931 crore), while Madhya Pradesh would contribute the remaining 38% (Rs 7,313 crore).
"It is not yet decided whether the central government will bear the maximum cost of this project or these two states will have to do it on their own," said an officer.
However, this investment split reflects the project's unequal benefits: Maharashtra stands to gain 66% of the irrigated area (2.34 lakh hectares), while Madhya Pradesh would receive just 34% (1.23 lakh hectares).
This imbalance has raised red flags, with experts warning that a skewed cost-benefit ratio could exacerbate inter-state tensions — especially since many of the infrastructure components, including groundwater recharge structures and canals, span across administrative borders and require coordinated management.
TBMRS is currently planned to cover six districts and 16 tehsils across the two states. In Madhya Pradesh, the project includes Khargone and Burhanpur districts, while Maharashtra's share spans Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, and Jalgaon.
The scheme aims to utilise 31.13 TMC of water, with 11.76 TMC allocated to Madhya Pradesh and 19.36 TMC to Maharashtra — including 8.31 TMC from dam releases and 22.82 TMC through aquifer recharge.
TBMRS requires approximately 8,118 hectares of land, with 4,836 hectares privately owned. The project, however, does not involve displacement of any villages, eliminating the need for resettlement.
Land distribution is as follows:
Madhya Pradesh: 3,362 hectares (1,599 ha private)
Maharashtra: 4,756 hectares (3,237 ha private)
Geological studies have confirmed that the identified recharge zones — largely composed of talus and alluvial deposits — possess high infiltration potential, making them ideal for sustainable groundwater replenishment.
The project's roots trace back to a 1958 technical committee led by M. S. Thimmal Iyengar, which assessed water availability at the Ukai Dam on the Tapi River. In 2014, a task force under the director of the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) revisited the concept. Following favourable feasibility assessments in 2016, detailed project reports were developed by WAPCOS, supported by satellite and geophysical data.
While the technical groundwork for TBMRS is largely complete, the project faces an uncertain future due to unresolved fiscal issues. The budget has yet to receive final approval, and disagreements over cost-sharing and maintenance responsibilities persist. Officers say TBMRS could be a transformative initiative — but only if both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh can find common ground on financial and administrative commitments.
Key infrastructure elements include:
A diversion weir at Kharya Gut Ghat in Khandwa (MP) with a storage capacity of 8.31 TMC.
Three major canal systems:
Right Bank Canal (RBC): 221 km
Left Bank Canal – Phase I (LBC-1): 135.64 km
Left Bank Canal – Phase II (LBC-2): 123.97 km
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Quick commerce ops not hurting beauty biz, its aiding personal care'
As Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart expand aggressively into beauty and personal care, Nykaa is taking a slower, more curated approach. Its pilot, Nykaa Now, is live in select areas of Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bengaluru, with a deliberate focus on personal care rather than its core beauty range. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads As vertical ecommerce players gear up to fight the quick commerce battle, Nykaa is taking a cautious approach toward the segment. After piloting quick-commerce platform Nykaa Now in select pin codes across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru last year, the beauty and fashion etailer says its core beauty category isn't designed for 10-minute deliveries and much of the traction is coming from personal care products "Nearly 80% of what we sell is beauty and 20% is personal care. Personal care is what's really picking up on quick commerce," said Adwaita Nayar, cofounder of Nykaa and executive director and CEO of Nykaa Fashion. "Our beauty business' gross merchandise value (GMV) has grown at 30% year-on-year for the last four quarters. So I don't think we're seeing an impact of quick commerce. It's hard to know what growth would have looked like without it, but we're where we expected to be."Beauty is a discovery and inspiration-led category, where there is a lot of width and depth that needs to be serviced. The nature of quick commerce doesn't typically support that kind of assortment, Nayar told ET in an clarified that the Nykaa Now list is curated separately with a focus on personal care and gifting rather than mirroring its primary ecommerce catalogue. The cautious tone contrasts with how horizontal quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy 's Instamart, and Zepto have aggressively expanded into newer categories such as electronics and fashion and beauty products. These companies have said beauty and personal care is fastest growing on their with the bigger players like Myntra, several vertical quick commerce startups have emerged, backed by venture capital including the likes of Slikk and Blip in the fashion and apparel did acknowledge a broader shift in delivery expectations. "It's not about 10 minutes, but people's expectations for delivery speed globally is just going up," she as discretionary spending slows in parts of India's consumer internet market, Nykaa's beauty business continues to grow at a healthy pace, Nayar said. FSN E-Commerce , Nykaa's parent company, posted a net profit of Rs 19 crore, almost double that reported in the year earlier. Operating revenue rose 23.6% year-on-year to Rs 2,016.7 crore, led by gains in beauty and personal care."We are aware of the broader slowdown. We benchmark ourselves against a lot of these companies and understand what their growth rates look like. But so far, Nykaa hasn't seen a similar impact," Nayar said."Based on our estimates, the online beauty and personal care market grew in the low 20s, while we grew in the high 20s."In contrast, the fashion vertical, which Nayar has led over the last few years, is growing at a slower pace, though it has outpaced overall industry growth at 12% year-on-year GMV growth in FY25."Actually, if you compare the net sales value (of beauty and fashion) it is a more apples-to-apples metric. The split is 75:25 in GMV terms and 80:20 in NSV."Her goal is not to make fashion bigger than beauty, but to build a strong and profitable business with a clearly defined said Nykaa Fashion's positioning remains distinct from fast-fashion players like Shein, which has re-entered India through Reliance Industries
Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
Karnataka's new IT policy to be finalised around July: Priyank Kharge
Live Events Karnataka's new information technology policy may be finalised around July, state IT minister Priyank Kharge told will succeed the 2020-2025 policy, which focused on IT-enabled services and is due to expire this State IT Vision Group comprising IT companies, chambers of commerce and think tanks is working on the new policy, which, once completed at the secretariat level, will reach the ministerial level.'The policy is currently a draft. The old policy will lapse this year. We're hopeful that the drafting of the new policy will happen before the CEO meet in July that we traditionally hold once a year. It is going through the IT Vision Group and larger consultations. Once it is finished at the secretariat level, it will come to me,' Kharge told last consultation on the matter was held among IT secretary Ekroop Caur, industry body Nasscom and others on May 23. They discussed strategies to reskill Karnataka's digital workforce, emphasised extending IT infrastructure beyond Bengaluru into tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and reviewed regulatory reforms to enhance ease of doing business in the state.'The IT policy will focus on creating new economic accelerators beyond Bengaluru. Infrastructure is a problem with any growing city and that was quite naturally raised by stakeholders,' the minister further said, 'The IT policy that had come out then (2020-2025) was with respect to IT-enabled services. Now it is going to be a light-house policy that leads to other policies. Once the feedback comes in, the budgetary outlay will be allocated. There are IT companies and think tanks that we consult.'Since technology has seeped into various sectors, the state has new policies on cybersecurity, engineering and research and development, global capability centres and data budget proposed setting up a Centre for Applied AI for Tech Solutions with an investment of Rs 50 crore over five years. A Rs 300 crore Fund-of-Funds has been established to support startups, along with a Rs 100 crore corpus for deep tech government is also expanding its startup ecosystem beyond Bengaluru, encouraging growth in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubbali-Dharwad and which was part of the consultation, said in a blog that the main points of discussion were identifying policy interventions to unlock emerging technologies' potential, strategies to reskill and future-proof Karnataka's digital workforce, extending IT infrastructure beyond Bengaluru and reviewing regulatory reforms to enhance ease of doing business in the was also a discussion at this meeting on the need for more structured and effective awareness of state's initiatives including the policy measures so that all sections of the IT industry, particularly SMEs can fully leverage the policies.
Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
Rapido cuts food delivery charges by half to counter Zomato, Swiggy
Ride-hailing app Rapido has finalised online food delivery partnership costs and terms with restaurants at nearly half the commissions from entrenched rivals Swiggy and Zomato , challenging the duopoly, people directly aware of the developments said. According to the agreed terms with industry body National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), Rapido is expected to charge commissions in the range of 8-15% from restaurants, compared to 16-30% Zomato and Swiggy charge, the executives said. The partnership terms state Rapido will charge a fixed fee of Rs 25 on orders below Rs 400 and Rs 50 on orders over Rs 400, the people quoted earlier said. This translates to a range of 8-15% commissions from restaurants, compared to 16-30% charged by Zomato and Swiggy. Consumers will be able to place orders on the Rapido app where restaurants will be listed. "This will specially help small restaurants ," one of the executives mentioned above said. The pilot is expected to go live in June-end or first week of July, starting with Bengaluru . ETtech "We've been in discussion with Rapido over the last few months just the way we are working closely with ONDC. We are discussing a structure which is economically and democratically much more viable for restaurants to sustain," NRAI president Sagar Daryani said. He declined to comment on specific partner terms. "It's also very important for us to know our customers and the same has been candidly communicated to them," Daryani added. Allegations of data masking have been a core point of disagreement between restaurants and the large platforms. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories An email seeking comments from Rapido remained unanswered. The ride-hailing unicorn's bike-taxi riders currently have a select 'idle-time' arrangement with Swiggy to deliver food in select cities, but the arrangement is non-exclusive. The NRAI, which represents over 500,000 restaurants, had initiated a similar partnership with the government-backed ONDC in January, but the terms are still being ironed out amid slower traction. Recent months have seen multiple small restaurant owners calling out what they alleged are "steep charges" levied by Zomato and Swiggy. "Zomato is becoming unsustainable for small restaurant owners like us," Vandit Malik, founder, The Garlic Bread, wrote on Linkedin three weeks back. "To even be visible on the platform, I'm forced to spend Rs 30+ per order on ads. What's left? Pennies. Sometimes, not even that," he alleged. The owners of another NCR-based small restaurant, Saffroma, wrote on X last week, which went viral, that it was quitting Zomato alleging "zero payouts, mystery service charges and advertisements initiated without approval." The post has since been deleted.
