Union home minister Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: A high-level committee headed by home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday approved disaster mitigation and recovery projects worth Rs 4,545 crore for nine states: Assam, Kerala, MP, Odisha, Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.Towards the restoration and rejuvenation of wetlands in Assam, Centre has allocated Rs 692 crore, of which Rs 519 crore will come from the Centre and Rs 173 crore will be the state’s contribution. The project is intended to enhance wetland capacity, create flood storage, increase flood resilience, protect the aquatic environment and aid economic growth.The fresh allocation will cover projects for mitigation activities towards restoration and rejuvenation of 24 wetlands in nine districts of Assam, spread across the Brahmaputra river system. “The project’s long-term coverage is aimed at the entire length of the Brahmaputra within Assam, and therefore this project would be taken up as a pilot project to establish a flood-proof Brahmaputra valley,” the home ministry said.The high-level committee has also approved phase-2 of the urban flood risk management programme for 11 cities: Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kanpur, Patna, Raipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam, Indore and Lucknow, with a total outlay of Rs 2,444 crore, to be funded from the national disaster mitigation fund. Centre had approved urban flood risk management programmes with an outlay of Rs 3,076 crore for seven metros.