Odisha Water Resources Department & OLIC Presented ‘Water Digest Awards 2022-23’

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has bagged two “Water Digest Awards 2022-23” for exemplary work in the field of water conservation and management.

The Water Resources department has won the best infrastructure pioneer project award for Upper Indravati LI project and Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation (OLIC) for best community lift irrigation project for outstanding efforts made within the water sector.

Managing Director, OLIC, Sudhansu Mohan Samal and Anil Kumar Panigrahi, CCE, Upper Indravati Project received the awards from Union Minister, Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Sekhawat at a function in New Delhi on Thursday.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has congratulated the Water Resources department for the awards. Minister, DoWR, Commerce and Transport Tukuni Sahu has also expressed her great pleasure for the achievement.

The department on Saturday organised a function to celebrate its success at Rajiv Bhawan in presence of DC-cum-ACS, DoWR Anu Garg; Chairman, OLIC Amaresh Patri; MD, OLIC Sudhansu Samal; EIC, DoWR Bhaktaranjan Mohanty and senior officers of DoWR and OLIC.

Speaking on the occasion Garg said the department could bag the awards for the hard work, dedication, commitment and team effort.

The upper Indravati Megalift Project is located in the left bank of Hati barrage in Jayapatana tehsil of Kalahandi district. The project was dedicated to the people by the Chief Minister in 2021. This project was awarded with ‘World Water Awards – 2022-23’ by the Water Digest in the category of ‘Best Infrastructure Pioneer Project’.

Similarly, the contribution of community lift irrigation projects in the state has been empowering to diversify into other crops and upliftment of communities, on-ground tangible changes and cost effectiveness, ease of implementation, highly social impacts.