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Gujarat resumes work on Sardar Sarovar dam

Within 24 hours of the Supreme Court's interim order, the Gujarat government resumed work on the prestigious Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada at Kevadia Colony in Broach district today.

Describing the event as a golden day for the state, Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel said the work resumed at block 35 at short notice as the state was suffering a huge loss of Rs80 million a day since May 5, 1995, when it was stopped.

"I did not want to delay it any further," he declared.

As per the chief minister's announcement yesterday, soon after the Supreme Court's ruling came, work resumed at the auspicious time of 12.39pm IST in the presence of Narmada Development Minister Jai Narayan Vyas, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited Chairman Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, and Narmada Development Secretary N D Desai, among others.

Reiterating the government's resolve to fully resettle the people being displaced by the dam, Patel said all the guidelines of the court in this respect would be followed.

He recalled that the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal had declared the water-sharing award when he (Patel) was Narmada development minister in the 1970s. Now, when he is the chief minister, the apex court's ruling has led to resumption of construction work.

The ambitious project, he said, would be a milestone in the development of India and Gujarat.

Referring to the disputes about the dam, he said, "We were confident that hum honge kamyaab ek din (we shall overcome)."

Patel said the Japanese turbines needed for the hydro-electric power generation at the project, which did not come so far owing to the disputes, would also be brought in soon.

Construction work on the dam was stopped when its height had reached 80.3 metres. Now, with the apex court permitting construction up to 85 metres (up to the hump), all 64 blocks of the dam are likely to be raised to this height. When the work was stalled, the dam's block numbers 29 to 50 had been constructed up to the height of 80.3m.

The total cost of the mega-project was estimated at Rs64,060 million in 1987. It had gone up to Rs131,800 million by 1991-92. Until December last year, the state government had spent Rs74,670 million on the project and another Rs120,000 million will now be needed to complete it, according to Minister Vyas.

Vyas said that if things go smoothly, water will start flowing through the Sardar Sarovar canals by 2001.

Vyas said the work of increasing the dam's height up to 85m is likely to be completed by July this year. As per the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal's award, the maximum height permitted is 138m (455 feet), including the concrete dam's height of 400 feet and its gates' 55ft.

Giving details about the rehabilitation work done so far, Vyas pointed out that as per estimates, Gujarat has 4,600 project-affected people, Maharashtra has about 1,000, and Madhya Pradesh has 13,936. So far, 4,481 displaced people from Gujarat, 648 from Maharashtra and 3,034 from Madhya Pradesh have been resettled at a cost of Rs1,620 million.

Eighty-five per cent of concrete work in the project has also been completed, he added.

Patel and Vyas had promised yesterday that the state government would leave no stone unturned in fully resettling the people displaced from the three states by the dam. All precautions are being taken to ensure that the resettled people do not face any problems, they said.

Besides ensuring time-bound completion of the construction of the dam, canal construction will be taken up in right earnest so that water can reach thirsty Saurashtra by 2001.

UNI

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