The project initially envisaged a dam on the Narmada river at Gora in Gujarat. This was in 1947. India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation stone for the project on April 5, 1961.

The availability of advanced techniques in the interregnum made it possible to raise the height of the dam to ensure optimum results. A series of negotiations followed among Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the four states that would benefit from the project. All that it led to was the formation of the Narmada Waters Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) by the Government of India in 1969.

The tribunal delivered its verdict a decade later in 1979.

The same year saw the start of advanced planning on the project, that envisaged the construction of 30 large, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams on the Narmada river. The Narmada is one of the two westward flowing rivers, along with the Tapti river, in the region. It originates in Madhya Pradesh and empties in the Arabian Sea after flowing through Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) near Kevadia in central Gujarat is one of the most important of these large dams and has been at the center of controversies due to the displacement of people it will cause by the creation of its reservoir and by the laying of canals to carry its water for irrigation in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The Central government cleared the project in 1980 but the Planning Commission provided funds only in 1988, which was when work started, after nearly four decades of planning.

The project, as per the NWDT award, envisages a 138-metre-high concrete gravity dam and reservoir with a storage capacity of 5.8 billion cubic meters covering about 214 sq km of the Narmada valley. A 460-km-long main canal that will stretching up to the Rajasthan border will take off from the right bank. Sardar Sarovar will have the world's largest capacity at its dam head - 40,000 cusecs. This will taper down to about 2,500 cusecs at the Gujarat-Rajasthan border.

The main canal will have 35 branches, making the network of the distribution system some 75,000-km long. To prevent over-irrigation, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNL), the agency that is implementing the project, has put in place what it calls a "volumetric supply by rotation with automatic remote control" system to economize the use of water.

The dam will irrigate 1.8 million hectares in Gujarat, 75,000 hectares in Rajasthan and 37,500 hectares in Maharashtra. This apart, 132 urban townships and 7,234 villages will get drinking water from the dam.

"The lifeline of Gujarat," as it is being labeled by its votaries, the dam will generate 1,450 mw of power, of which Madhya Pradesh will get 27 percent, Maharashtra 57 percent and Gujarat 16 percent of the total generation. Rajasthan does not get any share of the power generated.

The reservoir, when completed, would submerge about 37,000 hectares, of which about 11,000 hectares are forests. This will displace about 100,000 persons spread over 248 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Of these, three villages in Gujarat will be fully submerged while the remaining 245 villages will be partially submerged.

The population that will be affected, says former SSNL chairman Sanat Mehta, is about 0.33 per cent of that which will benefit from the project, against the average of 4 per cent in similar projects in the country.

The Gujarat government has offered a resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) package for the project-affected persons (PAPs). The package was at one time hailed by the World Bank, even though it later withdrew the aid it had committed to the project, citing environmental concerns. Thousands of PAPs have accepted the package, but thousands of others say they would prefer submergence to the package. While NBA has pointed out several lacunae in the R&R package and its implementation, the Gujarat government has set up a special body to hear the grievances of the PAPs.

The project, at 1986-87 levels, was estimated to cost Rs. 64.08 billion. Of this, Gujarat was to dole out Rs. 49 billion while Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were to contribute Rs. 15 billion between them.

Gujarat allocated about Rs. 34 billion in its Eighth and Ninth Five Year Plans. It initiated a slew of schemes like fixed deposits, debentures, the Narmada bond, inter- corporate loans and bank loans to raise the remaining Rs. 15 billion. The World Bank was to extend $ 450 million (Rs. 6.75 billion at the exchange rate of the time) at 9.75 percent interest. The Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan had sanctioned yen credit amounting to Rs. 1.50 billion.

The World Bank and the OECF, however, withdrew from the project following the controversy over the damage the dam would cause to the environment.

The threat to environment led to the project being challenged in the Supreme Court by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA or Save the Narmada Movement), which is led by social activist and Magsaysay Award winner Medha Patkar. NBA was also able to rope in several environmentalists and intellectuals including celebrity author Arundhati Roy to oppose the project.

Work on the dam came to a standstill following the case in the Supreme Court. The dam height at the moment stands at 85.3 metres. Today, the cost has swelled to Rs. 370 billion and each day's delay escalates the cost by Rs.80 million.

After the Supreme Court verdict on Wednesday, the Gujarat government will be able to take the dam height to 138 metres as granted by the Tribunal but subject to the implementation of environmental and rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) measures.

A dispute had also arisen between the four states over their financial obligations to the project. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had attempted to resolve the issue but failed. Madhya Pradesh also opposed a dam height of 138 metres, saying that that would result in large scale submergence and the state did not have sufficient land to resettle and rehabilitate the oustees.

At one stage, Gujarat had even signed an agreement with the other three states brokered by then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in 1996 to reduce the height of the dam to 132.89 metres. Gujarat now alleges that Madhya Pradesh had backed out of the agreement and had thrown its lot with the NBA on the plea that it had no surplus land for the rehabilitation of the project-affected persons (PAPs).

India Abroad News Service

Other Links
Madhya Pradesh deputy CM attacks anti-dam movement
Narmada dam only answer to drought: Minister
Sardar sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.
International Rivers Network
'Raised Narmada dam can give enough water'

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