Narmada canal network to be fully commissioned by December next year.

The ‘lifeline of Gujarat’ Narmada canal network will be fully commissioned by December 2019 after the completion of construction work on the remaining minor and sub-minor canals as well as pipeline connecting farms, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said recently.

According to Patel, most of the canal network has already been completed, barring a few areas where structural works are under progress.

Addressing the media, Patel said the Centre had allocated Rs. 730.9 crore as grant for the Narmada Canal network under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme for 2018-19.

“Narmada canal network is considered among 99 irrigation schemes in the country to be completed on a priority basis. The Centre has also allocated a loan of Rs. 1,484 crore under the Long Term Irrigation Fund at a reduced interest rate of 6 per cent and with a repayment period of 15 years. This will further boost the progress on the Narmada canal network development,” the Chief Minister said.

“We have set a target to complete the entire canal network by the end of 2019. This will include structural work on canals and pipeline network. The work is nearing completion at most places, barring the areas where there are legal hurdles in land acquisition. As a solution to that, we are setting up pipeline network so that land acquisition issue doesn’t arise,” he added.

As on July 2018, out of the total planned canal network of 71,748 km, 59,878 km has been completed. While all the main canals are in place, there are about 100 km of branch canal work being undertaken. Also, about 259 km of distributaries, about 2,002 km of minor canals and about 9,491 km of sub-minor canals are to be completed. As many as 2,569 water users’ associations have been registered.

Commenting on the current Status of water availability from the Narmada canal, Nitin Patel said the Narmada dam’s current water level is 121 meters, while monsoon withdrawal is still a month away.

“From here onwards, all additional water inflow into the dam will be stored in the dam and utilised for drinking and irrigation purposes. There is one more month to go for the monsoon withdrawal . We can expect some more inflow into the dam. There is adequate drinking water availability for a year now,” Patel said.

Earlier, there were concerns over water availability as the reservoir levels dipped alarmingly with scanty rainfall over North Gujarat and Kutch regions.

HBL