Large scale projects not feasible: BJP

The ambitious river inter-linking project is not feasible on a large scale, senior leader of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Murli Manohar Joshi, who chaired a parliamentary panel that examined the issue of Ganga rejuvenation, said yesterday.

Joshi said rivers can be inter-linked on a small scale but it is not "practical" to go for large-scale interlinking at the national level.

Talking to reporters after tabling a report of the Estimates Committee on Ganga Rejuvenation, the BJP veteran claimed thousands of kilowatts of power will be required to run pump sets to lift water from one end to another.

"It will require power and money. We are short of power as it is...how will water cross the Malwa Plateau. Imagine the number of pumping sets required," he contended. He said had it been practical, then nature itself would have done it. "The rivers would have been inter-connected. But it is not."

Indian government has so far identified three projects for interlinking of rivers. The river interlinking project is considered the brainchild of BJP-led NDA government and in October, 2002, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had formed a task force to get the project going against the backdrop of the acute drought that year.