New Delhi/Shimla/Chandigarh, Sept. 16 -- The pact for the long-pending Kishau Multipurpose Project in Sirmaur district was signed on Tuesday, paving the way for the 422-MW project to move ahead, with Union home minister Amit Shah describing the pact as a "historic agreement". The chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana - Yogi Adityanath, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Bhajanlal Sharma, Rekha Gupta and Nayab Singh Saini - signed the pact in the presence of Shah and jal shakti minister CR Patil, an official statement said. Shah said the agreement would benefit all six states in different ways and congratulated their chief ministers and Patil for helping to bring the project to this stage. He said the Centre and the chief ministers of the six Yamuna basin states were committed to completing the project at the earliest. The Kishau project envisages the construction of a 232.6-metre-high concrete gravity dam on the Tons River, which flows along the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border, with a water storage capacity of 1,562 million cubic metres. The project will potentially irrigate 97,000 hectares of land and generate 1,476 million units of clean hydropower, Shah said, adding that Delhi would be the biggest beneficiary. The pact comes after the six states agreed in June to sign an MoU on the project, clearing the way for its consideration by the Union cabinet. The project is estimated to cost around Rs.15,000 crore and had been pending for more than eight years. Under the agreement, the Centre will bear approximately 90% of the financial burden, while the remaining 10% will be borne by the participating states in accordance with the 1994 agreement, Shah said. He said an agreement reached on May 12, 1994, provided for separate agreements for each storage project coming up in the Yamuna basin. Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday said the state expected to earn around Rs.1,200-Rs.1,500 crore annually after the completion of the project. "History has been created in Himachal Pradesh. Our water is our wealth, and for the first time, the state will get the benefit it deserves from this resource," Sukhu said after signing the pact in New Delhi. "The other big benefit for the state under the agreement is that the state will receive 211 MW of electricity generated from the project without having to bear the cost of generation. The expenditure, which would have run into thousands of crores of rupees, will now be borne by the states that utilise the project's water," he said. The chief minister said that the state government accorded the highest priority to its interests during the negotiations, and after prolonged discussions, succeeded in securing important decisions in favour of the state. "Under the earlier agreement, Himachal Pradesh was required to bear the cost of the electricity generated by the project. The present state government did not accept this condition and continued negotiations for three years to safeguard the state's rights. As a result, the cost of the electricity generated by the project will now be borne by the states that utilise its water," he said. Besides, he said that families affected by the project would be provided adequate compensation. "While the population of the state in the area will be displaced, so the state will bear maximum loss due to the project. Therefore, it was unfair for the state to bear financial burden further and its contribution towards the nation's progress should be compensated suitably," he said. Leader of Opposition in the Himachal assembly and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said the agreement was possible primarily because of the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah and the willingness of BJP-ruled states to share the project-related costs. Thakur said that the Congress government in Himachal was "unnecessarily trying to take political credit" for the project. "I first thank the central government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and particularly the home minister Amit Shah. There was a strong push from them that the Kishau Dam MoU among all the states should be completed," Thakur said. Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday said signing the MoU was a significant step towards taking the project forward. Saini said Haryana's share in the Yamuna water was 48% and would therefore directly benefit from increased availability of water. "Along with the Kishau Project, the Renuka Ji and Lakhwar projects are also important for Haryana. Construction work on both these projects is already underway,'' he said. Saini said Haryana's share of water from all three projects - Renuka Ji, Lakhwar and Kishau - comes to around 1,143 million cubic metres. "The three projects will collectively increase water availability by 2,676 cusecs, of which 1,280 cusecs will be Haryana's share, the CM said....