Narmada dam height raised to 110.64 metres

The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), which is implementing the ambitious Sardar Sarovar Project, has completed the work on raising the height of the Narmada dam by ten metres.

Scheduled to be completed by mid July, the Nigam has been successful in raising the dam height from 100 metres to 110.64 metres before monsoon has fully set in.

Beginning March 18, when the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) permitted the dam height to be increased from 100 metres to 110.64 metres, the state government had planned to complete increasing the height within 120 days.

This involved laying about two lakh cubic metres of concrete, 3,000 metric tonnes of steel and using about 38,000 metric tonnes of cement. The Nigam spent around Rs 120 crore in raising the height by ten metres.

Over Rs 15,000 crore has already been spent on the ambitious project. "Technically, we will complete the 110.64 metre height tomorrow (Wednesday), but the Nigam has been able to complete raising the dam height within the stipulated time with engineers working overtime to make this possible," said S K Mohapatra, managing director of the Nigam, on Tuesday.

He said around Rs 120 crore has been spent on raising the dam height by 10.64 metres.

With the monsoon season already in, construction activity at the dam site cannot be taken up for the next three or four months. However, any further raising of the height will be undertaken only after orders from the Narmada Control Authority.

"All states concerned are on the job of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation works need to be undertaken by both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh before the NCA's green signal for raising the height further," the managing director said, adding that Gujarat has completed its task of rehabilitating those displaced by the project.

"Even if the NCA gives us permission to raise the height to 121 metres by December this year, the Nigam will be able to complete construction by June 2005. What then remain will be the 17 metres of gates that have to be erected, which will take the dam height to the final 138 metres," said Mohapatra.

Now that the 110.64 metre mark has been achieved, the dam construction has two more phases left. In the first phase, dam height will be increased from 110 metres to 121 metres and finally from 121 metres to 138 metres.

According to estimates drawn by the Nigam, the entire project is estimated to cost Rs 27,000 crore (according to 2000-01 prices) when it is complete, but this figure is likely to be higher than the estimated cost as a result of rupee appreciation.

In October 2000, the Supreme Court had directed that the Narmada dam height be raised from 85 metres to 90 metres.

And asked the NCA to draw up a detailed plan for the completion of the dam work.

Then, the NCA permitted the dam height to be raised from 90 metres to 95 metres in May 2002. Subsequently, the NCA permitted the height to be raised by a further five metres in May 2003.

In March 2004, the NCA granted permission for the dam height to be raised to 110.64 metres.