Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai expressed his happiness over the Rs 5,300 crore grants announced for the Upper Bhadra Project of Karnataka in the Union Budget.

Talking to reporters at Shedenur village in Byadgi village of Haveri district on Tuesday, he said the Upper Bhadra Project has been one of the important irrigation projects of the State and it will irrigate over one lakh hectares of land in drought-hit and dry land in Central Karnataka. Besides, it is also also a drinking water project that will benefit lakhs of rupees. The state had forwarded a proposal to the Union government to declare this project as a national project and it was happy that Rs 5300 crore grants had been announced. This is the first national project among the several irrigation projects of the State.

Reacting to farmers’ strong opposition to the acquisition of land for the Byadgi Industrial Corridor Project, the CM said farmers were opposed since it is a fertile land. It has been decided to take the degraded land for the industrial corridor project and not the fertile land. For this reason, the order for the acquisition of land for the Byadgi Industrial Corridor was withdrawn. The deputy commissioner has been asked to find out the other places for the corridor project in the district.