MS M.S.Swaminathan seeks inter-linking of rivers in the country

Inaugurating a two-day conference on river linking by national waterways at VIT University’s Chennai campus, Swaminathan said Indian engineers have necessary technology to interlink rivers, but what is needed is consensus among political parties to implement the project.

“When I was a member in the planning commission in 1980, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted to link all rivers, I said if you can bring political consensus we will implement the project, but as political consensus did not emerge it did not happen,” he said. He said several decades ago eminent engineer K. L. Rao worked to connect Ganga and Cauvery through interlinking of rivers and there were also plnas to link Himalayan rivers.