Ujh Multipurpose Project
Why in News?
The Ujh Multipurpose Project is in the news because the Centre has revived it and decided to implement it in phases, with Union Minister Jitendra Singh recently reviewing its progress and asking officials to speed up execution.
Technical Specifications & Location
- Geographic Location: Planned for construction in the Kathua district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
- River Flow: Positioned on the Ujh River, which acts as a primary tributary to the Ravi River (one of India's allotted Eastern Rivers).
- Dam Architecture: Features a major 116-metre-high concrete-faced rockfill dam structural design.
- Water Storage: Engineered to build a reservoir capable of holding roughly 781 million cubic meters of river water.
- Estimated Cost: The total budget allocated for the mega infrastructure setup stands at ₹11,907 crore.
Multipurpose Benefits
- Hydroelectric Power: Expected to generate a power capacity ranging between 186 MW and 212 MW of renewable electricity.
- Agricultural Irrigation: Designed to irrigate nearly 90,000 hectares of farmland across Kathua and Samba (J&K) as well as Pathankot and Gurdaspur (Punjab).
- Civic Amenities: Provisions include delivering treated drinking water directly to the Kathua district and securing dedicated water supplies for local industries.
Strategic & National Security Dimension
- Border Management: Backed actively by the Ministry of Home Affairs to strictly regulate erratic riverbed water flows.
- Infiltration Control: The physical infrastructure will help plug vulnerable cross-border infiltration routes historically exploited along the dry or low-flow riverbeds.
- Treaty Optimization: Paired alongside the nearby Shahpurkandi Dam project, it directly serves to stop India's unutilized water share from flowing across the border.
