Kishau Dam Project: Anurag Thakur Questions Credit Claims, Says Centre Drove Resolution
Dharamshala: Former Union Minister and Hamirpur MP Anurag Singh Thakur, while addressing media persons at Kangra airport on Wednesday, said that the long-pending Kishau Multipurpose Project had remained unresolved despite several governments at the Centre and in the states over the past decades.
Thakur said that under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil held discussions with the chief ministers of the six participating states and succeeded in reaching an agreement on the project.
The six participating governments are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. The agreement for the Kishau Multipurpose Project was signed on September 15, 2026, in the presence of Amit Shah and C.R. Patil.
According to the Union government, the Kishau project has been declared a National Project, with approximately 90% of its financial burden to be borne by the Government of India, while the remaining 10% will be shared by the participating states.
Thakur said the project represents an important step towards addressing long-standing water-related issues and securing resources for future generations. He also referred to the financial arrangements concerning Himachal Pradesh's share in the project.
Taking a political swipe at the Himachal government, Thakur said it was unfortunate that the Chief Minister was being seen as “credit-hungry” over the project, when the agreement involved six states and was facilitated through discussions led by the Union government.
The Kishau project envisages construction of a major dam on the Tons River, along the Himachal Pradesh-Uttarakhand border. The project is aimed at water storage, irrigation, drinking-water supply and hydropower generation. The government has stated that the project is expected to irrigate around 97,000 hectares and generate approximately 1,476 million units of clean hydropower.
The project had been under discussion for decades, with differences among beneficiary states over water allocation and cost-sharing delaying its implementation. A consensus was first reached among the states in June 2026, followed by the formal agreement signed in September.
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