CM Inaugurates Mettur Sarabanga Lift Irrigation Project today

CM to inaugurate the Rs. 565 Sarabanga lift irrigation project in Salem today:

Today March 4 will be an important day not only for the farmers of the Salem district but also to its people. It is because CM Edappadi Palaniswami is to fulfill half a century dream of Salem district people by inaugurating the Sarabanga lift irrigation project at Irupalli village in Mettupatti area. It is to cost Rs. Five hundred sixty-five to the exchequer but will provide excess water of the Mettur dam to fill more than 100 tanks in the dry areas of Salem.  More than one lakh people may get employment as agriculture will improve rapidly with the water in these areas. 

For more than fifty years, the surplus water of the Mettur dam was wasted by draining into the sea. The request of the people was not able to be fulfilled as all the water bodies in the dry areas around Salem district were at a higher level when compared even to the full capacity of the Mettur dam. Only by lift irrigation, surplus water from the Mettur dam can be filled in these tanks.  Now with CM laying the foundation stone for it today, it will benefit 4,238 acres of drylands in

Apart from increasing agriculture, it will increase the groundwater levels and also provide drinking water to these places. The villages are happy for the CM inaugurated the project and say that it will also improve animal husbandry in these areas and make Salem a prestigious vegetable Kendra in the country and provide employment to nearly 1 lakh people.

The CM announced the Sarabanga lift irrigation project on the floor of the assembly on July 15, 2019. As per the GO Rs. Three hundred fifty crores out of the Rs. Five hundred sixty-five crores project costs will be spent to acquire the lands from the people. More than 100 tanks in  Sangagiri, Mettur, Omalur, and Edapadi will share the 555 million cubic feet of surplus water from the Mettur dam under this project. 

The villagers wish that CM completes the project as planned to fulfill their fifty years' dream.