NARMADA - The lifeline of Gujarat

Project at a Glance:
Estimated Cost - Rs. 392.4 billion (8 billion USD)
Main Dam - 1,210 m long, 163 m high from the deepest foundation level
World's Second Largest Concrete Gravity Dam (by volume) after Grand Coulee
World's Third Highest Spillway discharging capacity - 87,000 m3/second
Designed Live Storage Capacity of the Reservoir 5860 MCM (4.75 million acre feet)
Hydropower - 1,450 MW installed capacity (1 billion kWh every year)
Irrigation - 1.905 million Ha (1.8 million Ha. in Gujarat benefitting 1 million farmers)
Drinking Water - 9633 villages and 131 towns (29 million people)
Canal Network - Approximately 75,000 km length within Gujarat
Main Canal - 458.318 km long, capacity 1,133 m3/second, 633 structures
No. of Employees 4673

It was the late Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel who conceived the idea of constructing a dam over the river
Narmada in 1946-47 for the optimum use of Narmada waters for the welfare of the Nation.
Today The Sardar Sarovar Project is one of the largest water resources project of India covering four
major states - Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat and Rajasthan. Dam's spillway discharging capacity
85000 cumec (30.0 lakhs cusecs) would be third highest in the world. With 1133 cumecs (40000 cusecs)
capacity at the head regulator, and 532 km. length, the Narmada Main Canal would be the largest
irrigation canal in the world.
The project will generate between 856 to 1007 million units per year of cheap and Eco-friendly,
indigenous hydropower. Project would meet the drinking water needs of 9633 villages, 131 urban
centers and benefits three sanctuaries.

About Project
The Sardar Sarovar Project is one of the largest water resources project of India covering four major states - Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Dam's spillway discharging capacity (30.7 lakhs cusecs) would be third highest in the world.
With 1133 cumecs (40000 cusecs) capacity at the head regulator, and 532 km. length, the Narmada Main Canal would be the largest
irrigation canal in the world.

The dam will be the third highest concrete dam (163 meters) in India, the first two being Bhakra (226 metres) in Himachal Pradesh and
Lakhwar (192 meters) in Uttar Pradesh. In terms of the volume of concrete involved for gravity dams, this dam will be ranking as the
second largest in the world with an aggregate volume of 6.82 million cu.m. The first is Grand Coule Dam in USA with a total volume of 8.0
million cu.m. This dam with its spillway discharging capacity of 85,000 cumecs (30 lakh cusec), will be the third in the world, Gazenba
(1.13 lac cumecs) in China and Tucurri (1.0 lac cumecs) in Brazil being the first two.

The Reservoir:
The reservoir would occupy an area of 37,000 ha. and would have a linear stretch of 214 kilometer of water and an average width of 1.77
kilometer. The Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of the Sardar Sarovar Dam is fixed at RL 138.68 metres (455 feet). The Maximum Water Level is
140.21 metres (460 feet.) while minimum draw down level is 110.64 metres (363 feet.). The normal tail water level is 25.91 metres (85
feet.).

Historical Background
The plan for harnessing the river for irrigation and power generation in the Narmada basin was initiated in 1946. Seven projects including
the Bharuch project were identified during the initial Survey and 4 projects Bharuch (Gujarat), Bargi, Tawa and Punasa in Madhya Pradesh
were given top priority for investigation. After the completion of investigation, the proposed dam at Gora in Gujarat with the full reservoir
level (FRL) 161 ft (49.08m) was selected and the foundation stone was laid by late Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 5th April,
1961. However as more detailed, modernised contour sheets from the Survey of India were available thereafter, possibility of raising the
height of the dam for optimum utilisation of water was considered.
In 1964, to resolve the dispute about sharing of the Narmada Waters between the Governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the
Government of India appointed an expert committee under the Chairmanship of late Dr. Khosla which recommended a higher dam with
FRL 500 ft (152.44m) in 1965. However, Govt. of M.P. was not agreeable to development of Narmada water as per Khosla Committee
report and hence the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) was constituted by the Government of India in October 1969, under the
Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. NWDT gave its final award in December 1979.

Benefits of the Project

Irrigation
The Sardar Sarovar Project will provide irrigation facilities to 18.45 lac ha. of land, covering 3112 villages of 73 talukas in 15 districts of
Gujarat. It will also irrigate 2,46,000 ha. of land in the strategic desert districts of Barmer and Jallore in Rajasthan and 37,500 ha. in the
tribal hilly tract of Maharashtra through lift. About 75% of the command area in Gujarat is drought prone while entire command in
Rajasthan is drought prone. Assured water supply will soon make this area drought proof.

Drinking water supply

A special allocation of 0.86 MAF of water has been made to provide drinking water to 131 urban centres and 9633 villages (53% of total
18144 villages of Gujarat) within and out-side command in Gujarat for present population of 28 million and prospective population of over
40 million by the year 2021. All the villages and urban centres of arid region of Saurashtra and Kachchh and all "no source" villages and
the villages affected by salinity and fluoride in North Gujarat will be benefited. Water supply requirement of several industries will also be
met from the project giving a boost to all-round production

Power
There are two power houses viz. River Bed Power House and Canal Head Power House with an installed capacity of 1200 MW and 250 MW
respectively. The power would be shared by three states - Madhya Pradesh - 57%, Maharashtra - 27% and Gujarat 16%. This will provide
a

useful

peaking

power

to

western

grid

of

the

country

which

has

very

limited

hydel

power

production

at

present.

A series of micro hydel power stations are also planned on the branch canals where convenient falls are available.

Flood Protection
It will also provide flood protection to riverine reaches measuring 30,000 ha. covering 210 villages and Bharuch city and a population of
4.0 lac in Gujarat.

Wild Life
Wild life sanctuaries viz. "Shoolpaneshewar wild life sanctuary" on left Bank, Wild Ass Sanctuary in little Rann of Kachchh, Black Buck
National Park at Velavadar, Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Kachchh, Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary and Alia Bet at the mouth of River will
be benefited.

Additional Production
SSP would generate electricity. On completion, annual additional agricultural production would be Rs. 1600 crores, power generation and
water supply Rs. 175 crores, aggregating about Rs. 2175 crores every year equivalent to about Rs. 6.0 crores a day.

Other Benefits
Benefits to small and marginal Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe farmers would be as under :

Marginal farmers (< 1 ha.)

28.0 %

Small farmers (1 to 2 ha.)

24.4%

Scheduled Tribe

8.7%

Scheduled Caste

9.1%

Against one tribal displaced, 7 tribals would get benefits

In addition, there will be benefits of fisheries development, recreational facilities, water supply for industries, agro industrial development,
protection of conserved forest from grazers and secondary benefits viz employment generation, increase in vegetal cover in 3.4 M. Ham. of
GCA, gains due to compensatory forest, tree plantation 100 times and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) fixation to large extent by 70 times.

References:
http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/Client/ContentPage.aspx

Sardar Sarovar Dam

The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on the Narmada River near Navagam, Gujarat in
India. It is the largest dam and part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering
project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose
dams on the Narmada River. The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to
increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity.
One of the 30 dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest
structure to be built. Following a number of controversial cases before the Supreme Court of
India (1999, 2000, 2003), by 2014 the Narmada Control Authority had approved a series of
changes in the final height and the associated displacement caused by the increased reservoir,
from the original 80 m (260 ft) to a final 163 m (535 ft) from foundation.[2][3] The project will
irrigate more than 18,000 km2 (6,900 sq mi), most of it in drought prone areas of Kutch and
Saurashtra.
The dam's main power plant houses six 200 MW Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity
and include a pumped-storage capability. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main
canal contains five 50 MW Kaplan turbine-generators. The total installed capacity of the power
facilities is 1,450 MW. Its final configuration is the second largest concrete gravity dam (by
volume) after Grand Coulee Dam in the US and has the world's third largest spillway discharging
capacity.[4]

Narmada Canal
Main article: Narmada Canal

The dam will irrigate 17,920 km2 (6,920 sq mi) of land spread over 12 districts, 62 talukas, and
3,393 villages (75% of which is drought-prone areas) in Gujarat and 730 km2 (280 sq mi) in the
arid areas of Barmer and Jalore districts of Rajasthan. The dam will also provide flood protection
to riverine reaches measuring 30,000 ha (74,000 acres) covering 210 villages and Bharuch city
and a population of 400,000 in Gujarat.[5]
Solar power generation

In 2011, the government of Gujarat announced plans to generate solar power by placing solar
panels over the canal, making it beneficial for the surrounding villages to get power and also
helping to reduce the evaporation of water. The first phase consists of placing panels along a
25 km length of canal, with capacity for up to 25 MW of power.[6]

Projected benefits
The benefits of the dam as listed in the Judgement of the Supreme Court of India in 2000 were:
"The argument in favour of the Sardar Sarovar Project is that the benefits are so large that they
substantially outweigh the costs of the immediate human and environmental disruption. Without
the dam, the long term costs for people would be much greater and lack of an income source for

future generations would put increasing pressure on the environment. If the waters of the
Narmada river continuous to flow to the sea unused there appears to be no alternative to
escalating human deprivation, particularly in the dry areas of Gujarat.
The project has the potential to feed as many as 20 million people, provide domestic and
industrial water for about 30 million, employ about 1 million, and provide valuable peak electric
power in an area with high unmet power demand (farm pumps often get only a few hours power
per day). In addition, recent research shows substantial economic multiplier effects (investment
and employment triggered by development) from irrigation development. Set against the futures
of about 70,000 project affected people, even without the multiplier effect, the ratio of
beneficiaries to affected persons is well over 100:1."[7]

Controversy
Main article: Narmada Bachao Andolan

The dam is one of India's most controversial dam projects and its environmental impact and net
costs and benefits are widely debated. The World Bank was initially a funder of the SSD, but
withdrew in 1994. The Narmada Dam has been the centre of controversy and protest since the
late 1980s.[8]
One such protest takes center stage in the Spanner films documentary Drowned Out (2002),
which follows one tribal family who decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for
the Narmada Dam.[9] An earlier documentary film is called A Narmada Diary (1995) by Anand
Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru. The efforts of NBA to seek social and environmental justice
for those most directly affected by the Sardar Sarover Dam construction feature prominently in
this award winning film (Filmfare Award for Best Documentary-1996).[10]
The figurehead of much of the protest is Medha Patkar, the leader of the "Narmada Bachao
Andolan," the "Save Narmada Movement."[11] The movement was cemented in 1989, and was
awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.[12]
Support for the protests also came from Indian author Arundhati Roy, who wrote "The Greater
Common Good", an essay reprinted in her book The Cost of Living, in protest of the Narmada
Dam Project.[13] In the essay, Roy states:
Big Dams are to a Nation's 'Development' what Nuclear Bombs are to its Military Arsenal. They
are both weapons of mass destruction. They're both weapons Governments use to control their
own people. Both Twentieth Century emblems that mark a point in time when human
intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They're both malignant indications of
civilisation turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the linkthe
understandingbetween human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the
intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life
and the earth to human existence.

Height increases

In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be
raised to 88 m (289 ft) from the initial 80 m (260 ft).
In October 2000 again, in a 2-to-1 majority judgment in the Supreme Court, the government was
allowed to construct the dam up to 90 m (300 ft).[2]
In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam to 95 m
(312 ft).
In March 2004, the Authority allowed a 15 m (49 ft) height increase to 110 m (360 ft).
In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to
increased from 110.64 m (363.0 ft) to 121.92 m (400.0 ft). This came after 2003 when the
Supreme Court of India refused allow the height of the dam to increase again.
In August 2013, heavy rains raised the reservoir level to 131.5 m (431 ft), which forced 7,000
villagers upstream along the Narmada River to relocate.[14]
On June 2014, Narmada Control Authority gave the final clearance to raise the height from
121.92 m (400.0 ft) metres to 138.68 m (455.0 ft)[15]

Report of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)[edit]

The Second Interim Report of the Experts' Committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF) of the Government of India to assess the planning and implementation of
environmental safeguards with respect to the Sardar Sarovar (SSP) and Indira Sagar projects
(ISP) on the Narmada River. The report covers the status of compliances on catchment area
treatment (CAT), flora and fauna and carrying capacity upstream, command area development
(CAD), compensatory afforestation and human health aspects in project impact areas.
Construction, on the other hand, has been proceeding apace: the ISP is complete and the SSP
nearing completion. The report recommends that no further reservoir-filling be done at either
SSP or ISP; that no further work be done on canal construction; and that even irrigation from the
existing network be stopped forthwith until failures of compliance on the various environmental
parameters have been fully remedied.[16]
The Supreme Court decision[edit]

Despite popular protest, the Supreme Court gave clearance for the height to be increased to
121.92 m (400 ft), but in the same judgment Justice Mr. Bharucha gave directions to Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra (the Grievance Redressal Authorities of Gujarat) that before further
construction begins, they should certify (after inspection) that all those displaced by the raise in
height of 5 metres have already been satisfactorily rehabilitated, and also that suitable vacant
land for rehabilitating them is already in the possession of the respective States. This process
shall be repeated for every successive five metre increase in height