Mr Sen said: "To ensure extensive industrial and human resource growth in this sub-region we shall be requiring 250 million gallons of water everyday. The collective supply of water by the DVC and the state irrigation department stands at 90 million gallons per day now leading to a shortfall in supply of 160 million gallons everyday. We have proposed a long term and a short term plan to meet the future demand."

New avenues are to be explored to meet the need of bulk water supply under the proposed master-plan, the minister said. The ADDA and the DVC have been asked to estimate the volume of surplus water that couldn't be preserved during the monsoon due to dearth of adequate logistic support.

Mr Sen said: "New dams are to be constructed in the upper catchment of the Damodar river to help preserve the surplus rain water, but the Centre is yet to give clearance to the project. This would also help preventing flood in south Bengal districts like Howrah and Hooghly." The floods in the lower reaches of the Damodar river, affecting the Hooghly and Howrah districts, according to the senior DVC officials occur because the Lower Damodar Drainage Scheme, initially part of a DVC project, was never implemented by the state government. Also, human settlements have increasingly encroached on the river's drainage channel in several places.

Four more dams were planned at Balpahari, Aiyar, Bokaro and Bermo, all in Jharkhand, but the project was never taken up seriously. In the first phase of the project, however, four dams at Maithon and Panchet in West Bengal and at Konar and Tilaiya in Jharkhand and a barrage at Durgapur were constructed with a total flood reserve capacity of 1,295 million cubic metres. DVC officials said that a central government agency - WAPCOS (Water & Power Consultancy) Limited has been asked to find out ways to make the Damodar valley more water potential.