Sardar Sarovar Dam

•  Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has given the final go ahead to the Gujarat government to close the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) gates, almost 56 years after the dam’s foundation was laid in South Gujarat by the then Prime Minister M. Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961.
• NCA permitted increasing the dam’s height by lowering of 30 gates and impounding of water in the reservoir upto its Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of EL 138.68 metres.

About Sardar Sarover:

• 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 Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) also consists of auxiliary works and a 1,450MW power complex.
• The Sardar Sarovar Project project India covering four major states - Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Dam's spillway discharging capacity (30.7 lakhs cusecs) would be third highest in the world.
• The scheme was conceived by the late Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1946-1947.
• It occupies an area of 37,000ha with an average length of 214km and width of 1.7km. The river catchment area above the dam site is 88,000 square kilometres. It has a spillway discharging capacity of 87,000 cubic metres a second.
• Narmada is the fifth largest river in India, traversing 1,312km from the Amarkantak range in Madhya Pradesh to drain into the Arabian Sea at the Gulf of Cambay. The river has a basin area of 97,410 square kilometres.
• The SSP project has been under constant criticism since its early stages. Its construction was halted several times due to court stay orders and oppositions.
• Works could not start due to water sharing disputes among the concerned Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh states.
• The Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) was formed in October 1969 to resolve the issues and allocate the water shares. NWDT reached an agreement in 1979 and construction of the dam was started in April 1987. The construction was backed by funds from the World Bank.
• A group of local people opposed the project in 1989 under the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA, or Save the Narmada Movement). The World Bank withdrew the funding in 1993 following immense protests, resulting in delays to the project.

Narmada Control Authority:

• The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has been setup under the final orders and decision of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) as a machinery for implementation of its directions and decision. The authority started functioning from 20th December, 1980.
• The authority is a body corporate with representatives of the four States of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and representatives of Govt. Of India.
• The authority is funded in equal proportions by all the four states. Secretary (Water Resources), Govt. of India is the ex-officio Chairman of the Authority, whereas the routine administration is the responsibility of Executive Member of the Authority.
• NCA presently has six subgroups. The Narmada Control Authority has its headquarters at Indore.

By: Vishal