Chandigarh: In a significant move towards making Haryana water-secure and agriculturally self-reliant, the World Bank has approved a massive loan of ₹4,000 crore for the state’s ambitious ‘Jal Sanrakshit Haryana’ project.
Announcing the development on Saturday, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini revealed that the total financial outlay of the transformative project stands at ₹5,714 crore. Set to be rolled out in phased intervals between 2026 and 2032, the mega initiative will comprehensively cover 15 distinct clusters spanning an impressive 48.94 lakh acres across the state.
While chairing a high-level review meeting of senior bureaucrats and officials, Chief Minister Saini directed the concerned departments to map out an exhaustive water management blueprint. He emphasized the necessity of foolproof execution at the grassroots level, stressing the optimum utilization of treated wastewater, strict conservation practices, and the deployment of an advanced digital tracking system to monitor real-time water availability and usage.
To drive local community engagement, village-level water committees will be constituted to oversee the development and maintenance of local water channels. The state government will back these committees with a dedicated upkeep fund alongside direct financial assistance.
According to official documentation, a core focus of the project is the complete rehabilitation of Haryana’s remaining 678 canals. The restructuring will be carried out through a multi-funded approach:
World Bank Assistance: 106 canals will be restored at an estimated budget of ₹2,484.87 crore.
State Funding: 293 canals will be overhauled using a state allocation of ₹2,230 crore.
NABARD Support: The remaining 279 canals will be modernized via projects backed by NABARD.
Additionally, CM Saini highlighted that the project would breathe new life into 620 regional water channels, directly benefiting approximately 3.18 lakh acres of fertile agricultural land. Furthermore, 120 canal-based micro-irrigation systems will undergo significant upgrades, broadening modern irrigation access to nearly 56,830 acres.
The ‘Jal Sanrakshit Haryana’ roadmap also addresses major ecological and farming challenges. It envisions the reclamation of nearly two lakh acres of severely waterlogged land, the promotion of the Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) technique over five lakh acres to conserve water, and crop diversification measures covering 1.12 lakh acres.
To tackle depleting water tables, 147 dedicated water bodies will be developed across seven key districts: Bhiwani, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Rewari, Charkhi Dadri, and Sirsa.
In a major recycling push, treated wastewater generated from principal sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Jind, Kaithal, and Gurugram's Dhanwapur will be diverted back into agricultural networks. This recycling infrastructure alone will irrigate roughly 28,000 acres at a projected cost of ₹282.13 crore.
Concluding the review meeting, which was also attended by State Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Shruti Choudhry, Chief Minister Saini noted that the World Bank had highly lauded Haryana’s visionary approach to sustainable resource management. He reaffirmed his administration's commitment to modernizing every single canal network in the state, securing vital water reserves for generations to come.