Water Resources Department, Government of Maharashtra, India

The Water Resources Department (formerly known as Irrigation Department) has a glorious history of Irrigation over last 150 years. The state of Maharashtra come into existence in the year 1960 after bifurcation of old Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujrat. In the year 1960 the Public Works Department was divided into Irrigation Department and Building and Communication Department. Since 26 October 2004 Irrigation Department is known as Water Resources Department. Before existence of Maharashtra State, for three parts of the state(Mumbai, Pune, Nashik), three irrigation acts were in existence. For western Maharashtra Bombay irrigation Act 1879, for Vidarbha, Central provisions Act 1931 and for Marathwada, Hydrabad irrigation act was in existence. After Maharashtra State came into existence, new irrigation act was formed for all Maharashtra on 5 August 1976.

An attempt has been made to effect improvements in irrigation management along with the construction of dams / projects during this period. The thought of taking up maintenance & repairs of completed projects and appropriate use of water came to the fore.