Like his father before him, Dattatatraya Kshirsagar, 80, has been looking forward for years to the day when a $65 million dam will be completed in his village, an hour-and-a-half drive southeast of Mumbai.

The dam would supply enough water to irrigate 1,000 hectares of parched land around it, including Kshirsagar's 2.5-hectare family farm in Kondhane village.

A steady water supply, instead of reliance on seasonal monsoon rains, would allow him to switch to cash crops and reap three harvests a year, instead of one now, Kshirsagar said.