Need another 3 years to complete Narmada project: Gujarat govt

Gandhinagar: Gujarat government on Tuesday told the state Assembly that it would take another three years to complete the ongoing Narmada dam project, for which Rs 342 crore would be required, in addition to the Rs 1,892 crore spent so far on it. During the Question Hour, Congress MLA Mohammad Javed Peerzada had sought a status report of Narmada dam project from the state government. On behalf of the government, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama informed the House that the current height of the dam is 121.92 meters and that there are no hurdles in increasing the height to 138.72 meters. "All the work related to rehabilitation of villagers has been done and we don`t need any other permission to finish the remaining work. As soon as we received the green signal from the Centre on June 12 this year, we started the construction," Chudasama said. "Till now, Rs 1,892 crore have been spent on the project and Rs 342 crore more will be needed to finish the remaining work, including installation of gates on the dam. The whole project will be finished within three years," the minister said. Replying to a query by Congress MLA Mahendrasinh Baraiya, Chudasama said that total 2.5 lakh hectares land is presently being irrigated with the water from Narmada dam. Another Congress MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela asked the government to provide details about pending work of Narmada canal network. In her written reply, Chief Minister Anandi Patel said that out of 2,585 km of branch canals, 2,304.38 km long have been built, and, out of 18,413 km of sub-branch canals to be built, 8777.26 have been already constructed. She assured the House that the remaining work would be finished "at the earliest". The government has also planned to bring the surplus water from Narmada to the far-fetched areas of Saurashtra to fill up the existing dams through a pipeline network, called as Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (SAUNI) project. Patel stated that 115 dams of Saurashtra would be filled up by pipeline network to be laid under SAUNI project. The CM said the first phase work of the project was already under progress.