Bembla River Project in Vidarbha: A History of Ambition and Failure

thenewsdirt
2 days ago
6 min read

Bembla River Project in Vidarbha was launched with the promise to transform agriculture in the drought-prone district of Yavatmal. Envisioned decades ago as a lifeline for farmers, the irrigation scheme aimed to bring water to over 50,000 hectares of parched land. Today, however, it remains largely unfinished despite enormous public expenditure.

The project’s cost has soared from an initial estimate of just Rs 50 crore in the 1980s to more than Rs 3,600 crore, yet only a small fraction of the intended area has ever received water. Instead of relief, Bembla has come to symbolise delays, cost overruns and unfulfilled promises in the region. Farmers who once pinned their hopes on this project are still waiting for the benefits that were promised to them a generation ago.

Inception of an Ambitious Plan

In the early 1980s, Maharashtra’s government identified the Bembla River in Yavatmal district for a major irrigation scheme to revive the region’s agriculture. The plan was first drawn up on 16 October 1983 with an initial budget of Rs 50.76 crore.

It gained administrative approval in 1992 at a revised cost of Rs 190.36 crore, falling under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC).

The project envisioned a large dam on the Bembla at Khadak Sawanga village, along with an extensive distribution network of canals. At the river site, a 7,650-metre-long dam rising 29.15 metres was to impound a reservoir of about 322 million cubic metres.

From this reservoir, a 113 km main canal would carry water out, branching into three canals, 15 distributaries and 79 minor canals to supply farms. In total, roughly 53,968 hectares of land were slated to receive irrigation from Bembla.

Notably, around 6,968 hectares of that area were earmarked for modern drip irrigation via a lift scheme, while the remaining ~47,000 hectares would be irrigated by gravity canals.

Bembla was promoted as a game-changer for Yavatmal’s farmers, and officials claimed it would dramatically boost crop production and end the area’s water scarcity. Local residents, though anxious about the consequences, largely welcomed the project.

In Pahur village, for instance, people agreed to relocate a revered temple and homesteads that were submerged by the new reservoir, a sacrifice made in hopes of long-term gains from assured irrigation.

Decades of Delay and Controversy

Despite high hopes, the Bembla project soon fell victim to chronic delays and alleged malpractices.

Construction dragged on far beyond initial timelines, and costs escalated dramatically with each passing year.

By 2009, the project’s budget had already swollen to around Rs 2,176 crore, more than ten times the original estimate, and further revisions pushed it above Rs 3,600 crore by the mid-2010s. Yet even after spending thousands of crores, less than half of the work had been completed by 2015.

Persistent changes in design, inflation in material costs and an expanded scope (such as belatedly lining canals with concrete) were officially cited as reasons for the overruns. However, investigations pointed to deeper issues: Bembla became mired in irregularities, with tenders awarded at exorbitant rates and a nexus of contractors and officials suspected of siphoning funds.

In 2012, as part of a broader irrigation scam inquiry in Maharashtra, Bembla was identified as one of 38 stalled projects in Vidarbha under scrutiny for corruption. The state government ordered probes into the VIDC, and at least 45 irrigation officials came under investigation for alleged irregularities in various schemes, including Bembla.

Some contracts had been bagged by firms linked to political figures, raising conflict-of-interest concerns. One contractor even described the modus operandi behind the cost inflation: “The modus operandi was simple: assure the higher-ups of a rise of at least 20% in project costs, and there is every possibility to get the contract.” Such practices not only drove up expenses but also resulted in shoddy execution, as funds were diverted and deadlines ignored.

Meanwhile, families displaced by the dam complained of inadequate compensation and rehabilitation. Residents of the 16 affected villages recall being paid as little as Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 per hectare for their lost lands, an amount later increased to Rs 1,00,000 per hectare after protests, but still paltry compared to market value. Many displaced villagers were still awaiting proper resettlement years after their homes were submerged.

Incomplete Canals and Farmer Distress

Nearly three decades after its start, the Bembla project had delivered very little water to the people it was meant to serve. By 2015, official records showed that only about 38% of the physical works were finished.

The project had nominally created an “irrigation potential” of roughly 49,000 hectares, but in reality, only around 1,200 hectares, barely 12% of the intended command area, was actually receiving water.

The reservoir stood under-utilised, with water filling the dam but no completed canals to carry it to most fields. In fact, significant seepage from the unlined dam was reportedly damaging nearby farmlands instead of nourishing distant ones.

Yavatmal district continued to be an epicentre of agrarian distress throughout this period. The promised irrigation never reached the majority of villages, contributing to repeated crop failures and mounting debts.

Yavatmal earned the unfortunate distinction of having one of the highest farmer suicide rates in the country, a crisis often attributed to the lack of reliable water for crops. Villagers in the Bembla command area openly blamed government apathy for the situation.

They pointed out that had the project been finished on schedule, it could have revitalised about 177 villages in four talukas (Babhulgaon, Kalamb, Ralegaon and Maregaon) and averted much of the hardship. “From being a cotton-rich belt that once used to export to Great Britain, to gaining infamy for suicides, Yavatmal has gone from bad to worse,” one local activist observed, linking this decline to the failure of promised irrigation projects.

On the ground, large portions of Bembla’s canal network remained missing or unusable. In many places, only a few kilometres of the main canal had been built, after which the channel simply ended or was choked with weeds.

Local audits in 2018 even found some distributary channels that appeared in official plans but had never actually been dug; they “existed only on paper”. Even close to the dam, concrete lining was left unfinished, causing water to leak or stagnate instead of flowing to farms.

As a result, the dam’s water was rarely released into the canals; flows were permitted only occasionally, often just when heavy rains caused the reservoir to overflow, which defeated the very purpose of the project.

Farmers at the tail end of Bembla’s command area say they have never seen a drop of its water. “Water released from the canal is yet to reach the tail-end,” one frustrated cultivator lamented, highlighting that the canals simply do not extend to his village.

Renewed Push for Completion

Faced with mounting public anger and a worsening farm crisis, the government eventually pledged to salvage the Bembla project.

In 2015, the state’s leadership ordered a review of all pending irrigation works in Vidarbha, putting Bembla at the top of the list.

Officials were dispatched to survey the site, and a committee of lawmakers visited Yavatmal that year to assess the situation. At the time, authorities promised to finish the project by 2017, a deadline that came and went. The following year, a dedicated “war room” was set up to monitor progress on Bembla and other delayed schemes.

However, these efforts initially yielded little change on the ground, by 2018, the project was still nowhere near completion.

In early 2021, state authorities once again turned their attention to Bembla. A high-level visit to the site was conducted to identify bottlenecks, and funds were sanctioned to restart some stalled works. Finally, in late 2025, the Maharashtra cabinet approved a fresh ₹4,775 crore package to fully fund and finish the long-delayed project.

This decision effectively revived Bembla after years of inertia, backed by a renewed political will to see it through.

According to the revamped plan, the project will irrigate about 58,768 hectares of farmland across five talukas (the original four plus Ner) once completed. Engineers intend to use a mix of canals, lift pumps and pipeline networks to ensure water reaches even the tail-end areas.

Importantly, the new budget also provides for outstanding rehabilitation measures. Around ₹89 crore has been allocated to relocate a village in Amravati district that will be affected by the expanded reservoir.

Beyond irrigation, Bembla’s water is now slated to support drinking water supply and fisheries, in an effort to maximise the project’s benefits for the region.

After more than four decades of setbacks, the coming years will test whether this renewed push can finally turn the Bembla River Project into the lifeline it was meant to be.

For many in Vidarbha, the saga of Bembla is a bitter lesson in how grand development promises can falter. As the project’s canals inch toward completion, the people of Yavatmal remain watchful and cautiously hopeful.

They have waited a lifetime for Bembla’s waters, and know all too well the cost of decades of broken promises.