Kishau Multipurpose Project Agreement Signed by Six States
In a significant inter-state water resolution, the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Haryana signed the Kishau Multipurpose Project agreement on September 15, 2026, under the mediation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Jal Shakti Minister C. R. Patil. This agreement resolves a decades-pending water dispute and represents the tenth water dispute resolved under the Narendra Modi government since 2018.
The project has been declared a national project with the Government of India bearing approximately 90% of the financial burden, while the participating states will contribute the remaining 10% in accordance with the 1994 agreement. The technical specifications include construction of a 232.6-meter-high concrete gravity dam on the Tons River along the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border, with a water storage capacity of 1,562 million cubic meters. The project will irrigate 97,000 hectares of agricultural land and generate 1,476 million units of clean hydropower annually.
Delhi is identified as the primary beneficiary of the project, particularly through the allocation of 25% of the water for environmental flow in the Yamuna River, addressing a historical oversight where policymakers had distributed all available water among states without reserving any for the river's ecological needs. This environmental flow allocation is expected to significantly contribute to the ongoing Yamuna cleaning efforts, with the goal of achieving a clean Yamuna by 2029.
The agreement follows a series of water dispute resolutions under the current administration, including the Lakhwar Multipurpose Project (August 2018), Shahpur Kandi Dam Project (August 2018), Renukaji Multipurpose Dam Project (2019), Ken-Betwa Link Project (2021), revised Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal River Link project (2024), Hathinikund to Yamuna pipeline scheme (February 2024), Narmada Project rehabilitation dispute (July 2026), and Son Basin water sharing between Bihar and Jharkhand (August 2026). The period from 2018 to 2026 is being characterized as an era of resolving water disputes in North India through mutual consensus.