The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, performed a Jal Pujan ceremony at the Nilwande dam and inaugurated the canal network of the dam in Ahmednagar district, which has been completed after a long delay due to lack of funds.

The left canal of the dam, which is 85 kilometers long, was also completed and dedicated to the people of Maharashtra.

About Nilwande Dam

The Nilwande Dam consists of two connected gravity dams that use roller-compacted concrete - the first of its kind in India.
They are located in Ghatghar village, in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India. These dams were built to create a lower and upper reservoir to generate power for the 250 MW pumped-storage hydroelectric power station.
The upper Nilwande dam, which is 15 m (49 ft) tall, is situated on the Pravara River, a tributary of the Godavari River.
The lower Nilwande dam, which is 86 m (282 ft) tall, is located on the Shahi Nalla River, directly south-west of the upper reservoir in a steep valley. This hydro power project diverts water from the Godavari river basin to a west-flowing river of Western Ghats, which is outside the basin area.
The people of 182 villages from 7 Tehsils (6 in Ahmednagar district and 1 from Nashik district) will be benefited by facilitating pipe distribution networks of water.
The idea of Nilwande Dam was first conceived in 1970 but it was never realised due to public protest. Again in 1993 the dam work was started and completed in 2011. But the canal was not developed along with the dam and again the work got delayed.
Now the canal and dam are being developed at a cost of about Rs 5177 crore.

Other Projects

PM Modi also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth about Rs 7,500 crore across various sectors.

PM Modi inaugurated the new Darshan Queue complex at Shirdi which is a state-of-the-art modern mega building envisaged to provide comfortable waiting areas for the devotees.

The new Darshan Queue complex is equipped with several waiting halls with a cumulative seating capacity of more than ten thousand devotees.

The Prime Minister also launched the ‘Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana’ in Public Programme.

‘Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana’ will benefit more than 86 lakh beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana in Maharashtra, by providing an additional amount of Rs 6000 per year to them.

PM Modi also inaugurated the 37th National Games in Goa.

About Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan)

The Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) is one of the world's largest direct benefit transfer schemes. It was launched on February 24, 2019, to provide financial assistance to farmers who own land.
The scheme transfers a financial benefit of Rs. 6,000 per year to the bank accounts of farming families across the country in three equal installments every four months through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
Initially, the PM-Kisan scheme was designed for small and marginal farmers (SMFs) with land holdings up to 2 hectares, but later it was extended to cover all landholding farmers.