Bhopal: Chief minister Mohan Yadav on Friday inspected the nearly completed 11.95-km Sleemanabad tunnel in Katni district and said the Rs 1,600-crore project will transform irrigation and drinking water supply across Katni, Satna, Maihar, Rewa and Panna districts.Calling the tunnel a “lifeline” for the Vindhya region, Yadav said the project will expand irrigation coverage by about 2.5 lakh hectares, benefiting farmers in the Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand regions while also improving drinking water availability and supporting power generation.The chief minister thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the Centre contributed around Rs 275 crore towards the project. He said water would begin reaching about one lakh hectares in time for the upcoming rabi season after the tunnel is commissioned.The Sleemanabad tunnel, India’s longest underground water tunnel, is designed to carry Narmada water from the Bargi reservoir to the Son river basin. Officials said the tunnel runs nearly 12 km, reaches depths of up to 120 feet below the surface at several locations and has been designed to withstand major earthquakes with an estimated lifespan of 100 years.Yadav said the project, which faced repeated geological challenges and hard rock formations during construction, would become a benchmark in engineering. Tunnel excavation began more than a decade ago, with a German tunnel boring machine deployed from 2016 to speed up work after initial progress remained slow.He said the project would irrigate 1,04,970 hectares in Satna, 54,227 hectares in Maihar, 21,823 hectares in Katni, 3,532 hectares in Rewa and 448 hectares in Panna, while canal construction to distribute water is progressing simultaneously.Highlighting the project’s unique design, Yadav said Narmada water will flow through the underground tunnel while the Katni river will continue to flow above it.Appealing to farmers not to sell their land, the chief minister said improved irrigation would boost agricultural productivity and help the Baghelkhand-Bundelkhand region emerge as one of the state’s most productive farming belts.The chief minister addressed the media after inspecting the tunnel. Union minister of state Pratima Bagri, MP Vishnu Dutt Sharma, MLAs Sandeep Jaiswal and Sanjay Pathak, along with senior officials, were present during the visit.
