13-11-2012, 03:41 PM
The Sardar Sarovar Project – India
The Sardar Sarovar.pdf (Size: 513.32 KB / Downloads: 46)
This note has been prepared in response to recent requests for
information about Sardar Sarovar Project. The note explains the
institutional groundwork that permitted the undertaking and the overall
purposes and concepts guiding its design and plan for operation and
maintenance.
There are three Project Reports, drafted in 1983/84, include Annex 6.
Project Criteria and Plan of Operation, (26pg.) Annex 7. Groundwater
Drainage and Conjunctive Use (16pg.) and Annex 8. Framework for
Operation and Maintenance (27pg.) . I am requesting approval to put
these reports in the Public Domain. Anyone who would like a copy please
let me know.
Synopsis
The key features of the Sardar Sarovar project are;
(a) The political agreement for sharing the waters of the Narmada
Basin for all time between the States of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
and Maharashtra which took more that 20 years to negotiate;
(b) The concept and design of a ‘controlled-volume’ water
conveyance and distribution system structured for traditional
irrigation concepts which provides ample flexibility for the
political, social and economic needs in the municipal, industrial
and agricultural sectors for the next 50 years.
© The Institutional arrangements which clearly defined the duties
and responsibilities the Government of Gujarat and at each level
of the state corporation that will manage the most complex
program in the Indian water resources sector; and
After 20 years of construction water is about to start flowing into the
main canal.
Narmada River Basin Agreement and Opportunities for Gujarat
The Narmada River Development – Gujarat (aka Sardar Sarovar) in the
State of Gujarat, India is one of the largest undertakings of its kind in
India, indeed, in the world. To better understand its complexity, this
summary outlines the evolution of the multi-state basin development plan
and the purpose and formulation of the Gujarat’s Sardar Sarovar Water
and Drainage Project (SSWD). This massive system is one of two
implementation projects to complete the developments within Gujarat.
For purposes of design and construction management, the Sardar Sarovar
dam and power plant that comprise the water diversion to the supply
system were set out as a separate project.
The multi-state Narmada Basin development also includes two major dams
in Madhya Pradesh (MP), upstream of Gujarat, and several hundred
thousand hectares of additional irrigation by that state’s Narmada Valley
Development Authority. But work on these has been postponed.
A Central government Tribunal that began deliberations in the1960s
created the remarkable foundation for Gujarat’s undertaking and those of
its neighbors. The Tribunal negotiated an agreement among the basin
states on the allocation of basin water, broad rules for basin water
operations and cost sharing of key basin facilities.
Framework for the Gujarat’s Water and Drainage Project
For Gujarat, the Agreement allows it to invest billions of dollars US in the
vast facilities necessary to accelerate the provision of services to its
rapidly growing urban centers and regional cities and to irrigate1.9 million
hectares. India / Gujarat borrowed from the World Bank to fund the early
planning and design of the facilities and the initial contracts on the SSWD
and the dam and power plant. Subsequently, the Narmada Niggam (NN),
the state owned corporation created to build, own and operate the
project, issued project general obligation bonds for financing the next
phases of the undertaking. The initial value of bonds sold, a majority to
domestic investors, in the 1990s exceeded one-half billion US dollars.