Bengaluru: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has asserted that next 10 years will be declared as ‘Decade of Irrigation’ when more emphasis will be laid on irrigation projects.

He was speaking at the Convention organised in the outskirts of Kodekal in Yadgir district, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started various development works taken up at an estimated cost of Rs. 10,863 crore, on Thursday.

“A target had been set to bring 40.66 lakh hectares of land under irrigation and 30 lakh hectares of land is covered and plans are afoot to bring remaining 10 lakh hectares under irrigation,” the CM said. By incorporating Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) technology, all the lands in Command Area will be provided water. With the expansion of Narayanapura Left Bank Canal, restoration and modernisation works, the lands of farmers in all Command Areas will get water, assured Bommai.

With SCADA technology, one lakh hectares of the total 4.50 lakh hectares of land in the tail-end at drought-hit districts in North Karnataka — Vijayapura, Kalaburagi and Yadgir — will be getting equal share of water. Moreover, the technology will firm up utilisation of water by 20 percent. It is one of the biggest projects in Asia, that will be continued to be implemented in Karnataka in the coming years too, the CM said.