Bhopal, May 11 -- Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav and his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis signed an MoU on Saturday to jointly roll out the Tapti basin mega recharge project. Yadav said the Tapti project is the "world's largest recharge scheme". "Madhya Pradesh is progressing in partnership with neighboring states to ensure equitable water distribution for the benefit of the public, especially in terms of drinking water and irrigation. The new water storage project is being developed through mutual cooperation, which will be one of its kind in the world," he said. "The project will benefit both states. It is necessary for Maharashtra, particularly for places having salty drinking water issues....It will change the composition of the `salty water belt' of Akola, Buldhana and Amravati (in eastern Maharashtra)," Fadnavis said. In Madhya Pradesh, the project will benefit the tehsils of Nepanagar, Khaknar and Khalwa across Burhanpur and Khandwa districts. The project will provide a permanent irrigation facility in 1.23 lakh hectares of land area in Madhya Pradesh and 2.34 lakh hectares of area in Maharashtra, officials familiar with the matter said. The total water usage of the Tapti Basin Mega Recharge Project will be 31.13 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet of which 11.76 TMC has been allocated to Madhya Pradesh and 19.36 TMC to Maharashtra, officials said. The project will need 3,362 hectares of land in Madhya Pradesh without displacing any villages, thus saving money on rehabilitation, they added. Additionally, work on the Ken-Betwa national river linking project and Parvati-Kalisindh-Chambal river linking project has begun, officials said....