SARDAR SAROVAR (NARMADA) PROJECT

 

Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have engaged in a war of words over the sharing of Narmada river waters.

• Madhya Pradesh has threatened to restrict the flow of water into the Sardar Sarovar Dam, located in Gujarat.

 

Sardar Sarovar Dam

• It is a gravity dam on the Narmada river near Navagam, Gujarat.
• Four Indian states, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Rajasthan, receive water and electricity supplied from the dam.
• The foundation stone of the project was laid out on 5 April 1961 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
• The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme funded by the World Bank through their International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity.
• The construction for dam begun in 1987, but the project was stalled by the Supreme Court of India in 1995 in the backdrop of Narmada Bachao Andolan over concerns of displacement of people.
• In 2000-01 the project was revived but with a lower height of 110.64 metres under directions from SC, which was later increased in 2006 to 121.92 meters and 138.98 meters in 2017.
• One of the 30 dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest structure to be built. It is one of the largest dams in the world.
• It is a part of the Narmada Valley Project.

 

Issue

• The Sardar Sarovar Project includes two power houses, the River Bed Power House (RBPH; 1,200 MW) and the Canal Head Power House (250 MW).
• Power is shared among Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat in a 57:27:16 ratio.
• The RBPH has been shut since 2017, when the gates were closed and the reservoir height was raised to 138.63 m. Gujarat has sought that generation should not start until the water reaches the full reservoir level (FRL).
• The protocol is that once the dam crosses 131 m, we ought to release some water as it fills to its FRL.
• For this, we have to resume power generation in the RBPH, where the turbines release the water downstream into the river.
• If the inflow exceeds the capacity of the water released by the turbines after power generation, then too we have to open the gates. The dam cannot just be filled to 138.63 metres without balancing the outflow.

 

Source: Indian Express

 

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