Gandhinagar, Aug 30: Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said the Narmada canal system has the potential to convert all rivers in the water-starved regions it criss-crosses into perennial ones, made possible by the engineering skill adopted since the design stage. Addressing different functions at Bavla and Fatewadi, near here, Modi said the state government has undertaken adequate steps to ensure that electricity could be generated at the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) within 150 days of height of the dam reaching 110 metres.
If river Narmada is the 'lifeline of Gujarat', the Narmada canal system can be said to be the 'backbone of Gujarat', he said.
Modi said the project would not only help change the economy of the state but indirectly transform social health too in the form of recharging wells and ponds, raising the underground water table saving up to Rs 150 crore annually in the process, bringing down the incidence of water-borne disease and reducing the effect of fluoride in water that is thrown up by deep tube wells.
Referring to attitude of congress party in Gujarat towards the success of the Narmada project, Modi said, we do not intend to make a political issue out of Narmada and rather feel that everybody has a right to participate in the celebrations.
But the congressmen refuse to join the mainstream in the hour of celebration. What the successive congress governments could not do in 45 years, the BJP government did it by showing the way, he said. Bureau Report