Sardar sarovar dam , sardar sarovar narmada dam - travels & History

About The Place: 

Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD), on the Indian Narmada river, is located in the village of Kevadia in the state of Gujarat. It is one of the largest and most controversial interstate, multipurpose river valley infrastructure development projects in the country.

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.

One of the 30 dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest structure to be built. It is the second largest concrete dam in the world in terms of the volume of concrete used in its construction, after the Grand Coulee dam across River Columbia, US.

Narmada's Sardar Sarovar dam controversial :

The Sardar Sarovar Dam, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, has been a controversial subject for the last six decades. The dam – built on the Narmada river in Navagam, Gujarat – has been disputed between state governments and even invited concerns of activists.

It is due to deliberations invited by these issues that the dam took almost six decades to be built. It was finally inaugurated by Modi on 17 September 2017 after the foundation stone for it was laid by the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on 5 April 1961.

Benefits of Sardar Sarovar Dam :

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 173 urban centres and 9490 villages  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.

Sardar Sarovar dam from Statue of Unity :

The Statue of Unity comes under the category of world's tallest statues and is located 3.5 km from a small town known as Kevadiya in Gujarat, India. The Statue of Unity stands on Sadhu island on the Narmada, 3.2 km downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam, the second largest concrete gravity dam (by volume) in the world.

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