Gujarat gets approval to raise height of Narmada Dam Thursday June 12,2014

In a major boost to Gujarat which has been regularly facing water woes due to deficient rains, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today announced that they have got approval to raise the height of Narmada dam to 138.72 metres (455 feet).

"The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has given the approval to raise the height of the dam to 138 metres," Patel said in Junagadh while she was there to attend a function.The decision of the NCA comes just a few days after Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister of the country

State health minister and spokesperson Nitin Patel told  "We have received the approval for raising the height of Narmada dam from 121.92 metres to 138 metres."The decision to raise the height of the dam comes after eight years.

The foundation stone of the dam was laid by country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on April 5, 1961. The project, however, got embroiled in controversy over issues of displacement of project-affected people.

However, the Supreme Court had earlier given the approval for the project to raise the height of the dam to 138.72 metres.

The NCA had allowed the raising of the height to 121 metres in 2006, and it is expected that at the full level of 138 metres, the Narmada waters will irrigate an additional 6.8 lakh hectares and allow an extra 40 per cent power generation, besides improving drinking water supply.

The NCA on Thursday June 12,2014 approved the installation of sluice gates over the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project, which will effectively raise the height of the Narmada dam from 121 metres to its full level of 138 metres.

Buoyed by the news, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel performed a puja at the dam site to launch the start of construction work on the gates.

Note

• In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be raised to 88 m (289 ft) from the initial 80 m (260 ft).
• In October 2000 again, in a 2-to-1 majority judgment in the Supreme Court, the government was allowed to construct the dam up to 90 m (300 ft).
• In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam to 95 m (312 ft).
• In March 2004, the Authority allowed a 15 m (49 ft) height increase to 110 m (360 ft).
• In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to increased from 110.64 m (363.0 ft) to 121.92 m (400.0 ft). This came after 2003 when the Supreme Court of India refused allow the height of the dam to increase again.
• In August 2013, heavy rains raised the reservoir level to 131.5 m (431 ft), which forced 7,000 villagers upstream along the Narmada River to relocate