WHAT IS SARDAR SAROVAR NARMADA PROJECT?

The Narmada Dam Project is a projectinvolving the construction of a series of largehydroelectric dams on the Narmada River inIndia.

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HISTORY OF PROJECT:-

The project was first conceived of in the 1940s by the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The project only took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increaseirrigation and produce hydroelectricity.World Bank had signed a Loan agreement with GOI of $450 million, signed inMay 1985.Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoE&F) formed Resettlement andResettlement (R&R) and Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) for theProject. After the formation of these departments the project came in existence.

The project began in 1979 and to be fully complete by 2025.Gujarat Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are the states that are to be benefited.World Bank withdrew the project in 1993.

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OBJECTION FOR NARMADAPROJECT :-

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From the day one, the project is in the controversy. The Narmada BachaoAndolan (Save the Narmada Movement), which is spearheading the protest,says the project will displace more than 200,000 people apart from damagingthe fragile ecology of the region. NBA activists such as Medha Patkar, Amir Khan,Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, Arundhiti Roy andother say that the dams will submerge forestfarmland, disrupt downstream fisheries and possibly inundate and salinate land along thecanals, increasing the prospect of insect-bornediseases.Some scientists have added to the debate saying theconstruction of large dams could causeearthquakes.They say that in a country as disorganised as India, it is likely that the necessarymaintenance of these dams may suffer.But those in favour of the project say that the project will supply water to 30m people and irrigate crops to feed another 20m people.In what was seen as a major victory for the anti-dam activists, the World Bank withdrew from the Narmada project in 1993.Several other international financial institutions also pulled out citing humanand environmental concerns.The construction of Sardar Sarovar dam itself was stopped soon afterwards.

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FEATURE OR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROJECT:

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A massive undertaking

Farmland will be submerged once the dam iscomlete

Of the thirty large dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Project(SSP) is the largest multipurpose project involved in the construction with a proposed height of 136.5 m.The multi-purpose project will irrigate more than 18,000 square kilometres,most of it in

drought

prone areas like

Kutch

and

Saurashtra

.The multi-million dollar project involves the construction of some 3,200 small,medium and large dams on the Narmada river.Sardar Sarovar project is the first major river valley project which is subjectedto exacting environmental conditions imposed by the Government of India atthe time of according clearance to this project.This is also one of the first projects where environmental impact assessment has been undertaken through agencies even when the project was in planning phase.

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HEIGHT ISSUES (INVOLVEMENT OF COURT IN HIGHTS):

Many times, this big budget Dam-Project brought the states to the Court aboutits height matter.

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In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for thedam's height to be raised to 88 metres from the initial 80.

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In October 2000 again, in a 2 to 1 majority judgement in the SupremeCourt, the government was allowed to construct the dam up to 90 metres.

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In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing theheight of the dam by another five metres.

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In March 2004, the Authority allowed another raise, this time to 110metres.

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In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for theheight of the dam to increased from 110.64 metres to 121.92. This cameafter the Supreme Court of India had refused to stay the height of the damagain in 2003

However, in October 2000, the Indian Supreme Court gave a go-ahead for theconstruction of the dam. In the end Supreme Court ordered that the heightshould can be taken to 121.92.

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BENEFITS FROM THE PROJECT:

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