The Chief Minister's Office of Uttarakhand announced on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, that the long-pending Jamrani Dam Multipurpose Project has been included under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), describing the move as a new ray of hope for the Kumaon and Terai regions that have awaited reliable irrigation infrastructure for decades.

Context

The post, shared from the official CMO handle, states: 'Dashkon se intezaar kar rahe Kumaun aur Terai kshetra ke liye Jamrani Baandh Bahuddesheey Pariyojana ab umeed ki nayi kiran bankar ubhar rahi hai' ('For the Kumaon and Terai regions that have waited for decades, the Jamrani Dam Multipurpose Project is now emerging as a new ray of hope'). The announcement credits the central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with giving fresh momentum to the project by bringing it under PMKSY. The Jamrani Dam Multipurpose Project is designed to serve multiple purposes — irrigation for agricultural land, drinking water supply, and hydropower generation — for communities across both the hilly Kumaon division and the Terai plains belt of Uttarakhand.

Policy Backdrop

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana was launched in 2015 with the mandate to expand irrigation coverage across India, improve water-use efficiency, and fast-track stalled state-level irrigation projects through central viability-gap funding and technical support. Inclusion under PMKSY typically unlocks dedicated central allocations and provides a structured implementation timeline for projects that have otherwise languished in state budgets. Uttarakhand has long sought central support for storage dam projects to address acute seasonal water scarcity in both its mountain districts and the downstream plains. The Jamrani Dam project is among the most prominent of these long-delayed proposals, with stakeholders in Kumaon and the Terai belt having advocated for its completion over multiple decades.

Stakeholders and Impact

Farmers in the Kumaon hills and the Terai agricultural belt stand to be the primary beneficiaries if the project reaches completion. Reliable upstream water storage is expected to stabilise irrigation supply across seasons, reducing dependence on rain-fed agriculture and improving crop yields in the region. Drinking water security for settlements in both zones is also cited as a key deliverable of the multipurpose design. The move mirrors a broader pattern in which the central government has folded long-pending Himalayan water infrastructure projects — including those in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir — into national schemes to provide the financial and administrative push needed to break implementation deadlocks.

What's Next

The key milestones to watch will include the release of detailed project report approvals, formal central fund allocation orders, and environmental clearance timelines under the PMKSY framework. Progress on these administrative steps will determine how quickly the project transitions from announcement to active construction, and whether the decades-long wait for Kumaon and Terai communities finally nears its end.