text: Jayakwadi: Jayakwadi water begins to flow for rabi crops | Aurangabad News - Times of India
  TNN / Updated: Dec 2, 2016, 11:43 IST
  AURANGABAD: The Jayakwadi major irrigation project recently started releasing water for rabi crops in some parts of the region, as per the decision to supply in rotations.
  The canal advisory committee had decided at a meeting in Mumbai to offer four rotations of water supply from the dam for agricultural purpose.
  S S Dhanshetty, executive engineer with Command Area Development Authority (CADA), Aurangabad, said each rotation of water for irrigation purpose would be for around 21-days with planned discharge of around 2,000 cusecs.
  "The discharge will be on for two weeks, followed by a week's gap. We have planned four rotations but it remains to be seen whether this could be executed considering time constraint. Three rotations would comfortably benefit a large area of agricultural land, he said.
  Each rotation is expected to witness discharge of 120 MCUM to 130 MCUM water. According to officials, nearly 1.8 lakh hectare of farm land is expected to benefit from the water release, including areas under sugarcane cultivation.
  The water resources department announced release of nearly 15 TMC water for agricultural purpose, following good rainfall in the region that resulted into Jayakwadi filling upto 85 percent of its live storage capacity.
  Water was not released from the Jayakwadi dam for the kharif crops because of satisfactory rain during that season. The decision to release water for rabi crops comes after a four-year gap.
  Activist Abhijit Dhanorkar-Joshi stressed the need for taking adequate measures so that water reaches all the targeted areas for the rabi crops.
  "Going by past experience, it should not happen that farmers from tail-end areas wait for water endlessly. Concerted efforts should be made to carry out effective release of water per rotation," he said.