Rs29,000 cr spent on Sardar Sarovar project, but only 26% of canal system is ready.
The Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) for a multipurpose dam on river Narmada is now in its 50th year after inception.
The project, it was promised, would not only produce electricity for energy-starved states of the region but, through a system of canals, distribute Narmada water to most of water-deficient Gujarat. Some areas of Rajasthan were also to benefit from the irrigation system.
The dam has been built but the promise about most of Gujarat getting Narmada water for irrigation has been fulfilled only partially. Even after spending nearly Rs29,000 crore on the project, only 26% of the work on the planned water distribution system has been completed.
The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out large-scale mismanagement in the execution of the project. Also, a people’s inquiry committee formed by various civil rights organisations has brought to light numerous lapses in the implementation of the project.
But experts, technocrats and NGOs associated with the SSP have their own explanation for the delay in completion of the water distribution network.
Former union minister and economist, YK Alagh, who has been involved with the project at different times, agreed that the distribution system should be completed quickly.
“But now people who used to say that Narmada water would never reach the villages must accept that they were wrong,” he said. “If the agriculture growth rate in Gujarat today is 6%, it is only because of the irrigation canals.”
Similar views on the project are held by former chief secretary of Gujarat and ex-chairman of the SSNNL, PK Laheri. He said satellite images showed that large areas in the state were now irrigated by water from Narmada canals.
“Despite many problems, the cultivable command area (CCA) along the canals has increased substantially,” he said. “Farming in around 90% of the nearly 7.5 lakh hectares of the total cultivable area is based on canals.”
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