Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are locked in a dispute over sharing of Cauvery river water for decades.Amaravati: The Centre would soon take up a major project to link rivers Godavari and Cauvery that would resolve water issues between four southern states, Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari announced in Amaravati on Monday.The objective of project, expected to cost upto Rs 60,000 crore, was to make good use of about 1100 tmc ft of Godavari water that currently drained into sea, he said, addressing a meeting of BJP workers in Amaravati."The detailed project report for linking rivers Godavari-Krishna-Pennar-Cauvery is ready.

We will soon present it to Cabinet for approval.

Thereafter, we will raise finances for project either from World Bank or Asian Development Bank as project cost is about Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore," Mr Gadkari said.The Godavari water would thus be taken to tail end of Tamil Nadu, he said."Every year, about 1,100 tmc ft of Godavari water is going waste into Bay of Bengal while there is a dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka So we have taken decision to take Godavari water to Tamil Nadu and that will resolve all water issues among four states," Mr Gadkari noted.A special technology, suggested by a US-based AP engineer, of using steel pipes would be used for linking Godavari and Cauvery."We have decided not to use canals as it results in water (evaporation) losses.

Low thickness steel pipes with a special treatment will be used that will also save project cost significantly," Union Minister said.Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are locked in a dispute over sharing of Cauvery river water for decades.Mr Gadkari reiterated that Centre would spend "100 per cent" cost of ongoing Polavaram multipurpose project."We have given a lot of priority to Polavaram and never discriminated against Andhra Pradesh.

With cooperation of state government and 100 per cent Central funding, we are implementing project in an expeditious manner," he said.Mr Gadkari, however, regretted that Chandrababu Naidu government was not giving any credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Central government for such efforts.