New Delhi: With around 300 dams in the country more than 100-year-old, the government on Monday introduced a bill to ensure their safety, in the Lok Sabha.
As many as 293 big dams in the country are more than 100-years-old, Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said while introducing the Dam Safety Bill, 2019, in Lok Sabha.
The Bill seeks to set up the National Dam Safety Authority for proper surveillance, inspection and maintenance of specified dams as well as address unresolved issues between states.
Besides the National Dam Safety Authority, the government has proposed setting up a National Committee on Dam Safety in order to prevent dam failure-related disasters.
According to the Bill, the committee would maintain standards of dam safety and also evolve policies for ensuring safety of dams.
Mr Shekhawat said there are 5,344 big dams in the country and out of them, around 293 are more than 100 years old.
About 1,041 dams or 20 per cent are 50 to 100 years old, he added.
The National Dam Safety Authority would act as a regulatory body to implement policy, guidelines and standards for proper surveillance, inspection and maintenance of specified dams as well as address unsolved points of issues between two states, among others.
Further, the Jal Shakti minister said that nearly 92 per cent of the dams in the country are built over inter-state rivers.
