On his 68th birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the Sardar Sarovar Project constructed on River Narmada to the nation by offering puja at the dam site and later on address a huge rally at Dabhoi town in Central Gujarat which is 60 km from the dam.
On Sunday afternoon, Modi will address a huge rally at Dabhoi town situated near the tribal belt of the State. He will also visit Saurashtra town Amreli where he addressed a farmer’s rally on the same day.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said Narendrabhai will dedicate the Sardar Sarovar project to the nation after opening the 30 gates installed on it. The gates were closed on the directions of the Narmada Control Authority on June 17, 2017, said the Chief Minister, adding with the completion of the project, doors for the prosperity have opened for the people of Gujarat.
Giving credit to the PM for completion of the project, the Gujarat CM remarked that due to the Prime Minister’s tireless efforts flood gates could be installed on it and permission was granted to increase its height. “September 17, the birthdate of Narendrabhai is appropriate to dedicate the project to the nation. It will be befitting gift to him,’’ he added.
To make the occasion grand the BJP-led Gujarat Government has had launched an awareness campaign on the importance of Narmada dam project across the State. “Ma Narmada Mahotsav” was kicked-off on September and during the campaign a chariot called the “Narmada Rath” travelled across 24 districts in Gujarat which covered 10,000 villages.
Showcased as lifeline for the people of Gujarat, the project will be beneficial for neighbouring Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for electricity as well as irrigation. The much talked about project also completed more than five decades after the foundation stone was laid by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on April 5, 1961.
However, construction work couldn’t take off at the dam site till 1987 due to environmental and resettlement issues and amid agitations of Medha Patkar and other activists. After clearances from various authorities, construction work progressed and the dam remained unfinished at a height of 121.92 metres till
May 2014. It was in June, after the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) approved the State Government’s eight-year-old plea to increase the Sardar Sarovar dam’s height by installing 17-metre tall sluice gates.
The installation of 30 sluice gates further increased the dam’s height from 121.92 metres to 138.68 metres, taking it to its full height. The storage capacity has increased to 4.73 million cubic metres (MCM) from the earlier 1.27 million cubic metres.
The cost of the project has crossed Rs. 60,000 crore. With the completion of the project and once canal network would complete it would help to irrigate 1.8 million hectares of land in Gujarat and 2, 46,000 hectares in Rajasthan. The increased reservoir levels would help pump more water into the planned 75,000-km-long network of Narmada canals across Gujarat. However, the opposition Congress has claimed that about 43,000 km of canal work remains incomplete, thereby, causing massive loss to the state. The project aims to benefit about 10 lakh farmers. The hydro power generated from the turbines installed in the dam provides electricity to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.