SARDAR SAROVAR DAM IS PROVIDING IRRIGATION WATER IN SUMMER FOR FIRST TIME

SARDAR SAROVAR DAM IS PROVIDING IRRIGATION WATER IN SUMMER FOR FIRST TIME

Subject : Economy / Infrastructure

Context : Called the ‘lifeline of Gujarat’, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam usually has no water for irrigation during summers. However, this year the dam had 122.72 metres with live storage of 1,711 million cubic metres in the month of June.

Concept :

About Sardar Sarovar Dam

• Sardar Sarovar Project is a concrete gravity dam on the Narmada river in Kevadiya near Navagam, Gujarat.
• It is the second-largest concrete dam in the world in terms of the volume of concrete used to construct the dam (after the Grand Coulee Dam in the United States).
• It involves a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams.
• The irrigation benefits accrue to the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat while the hydroelectric power of the SSP is to be shared by the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Maharashtra is to get around 57 percent of the electricity produced; Madhya Pradesh will get around 27 percent and Gujarat around 16 percent.
• It was funded by the World Bank through its International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), although it withdrew in 1994.
• It is a part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada river.