MUMBAI, May 11 -- With Maharashtra and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh signing a pact for sharing water under the ambitious Tapi Mega Recharge Project in Madhya Pradesh, the state will be able to irrigate 234,707 hectares of land in Vidarbha and North Maharashtra. An MoU on the project was signed by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis with his Madhya Pradesh counterpart, Mohan Yadav, at a meeting of the inter-state control board of the two states on irrigation and hydro power projects, in Bhopal on Saturday. The cost of the joint project, being built on Tapi River at Khariya in MP, is Rs.19,244 crore, at 2022-23 estimates. According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), the project will irrigate 234,707 hectares of land in Jalgaon in North Maharashtra; and Akola, Buldhana and Amravati districts in Vidarbha. The state will use 19.37 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water, while MP will use 11.76 TMC. MP will get 123,082 hectares of land irrigated. "It is a historic day for both states. The project was envisaged in 2000 but sped up only in 2016. Once this project is complete, the shortage of water for drinking and irrigation purposes in Jalgaon-Akola Amravati-Buldhana will ease," said Fadnavis....