Narmada dam's height increased after eight years.

In a significant decision, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has cleared an eight-year-old proposal to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam by 17 metres, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel announced recently.

'The NCA has granted approval to raise the dam height to 138 metres,' Patel said at a function in Junagadh recently, even as anti-dam activists protested the move.

'Heartfelt gratitude from the people of Gujarat to Hon. PM Narendra Modi. The decision pending has come so swiftly. Achchhe din aa gaye hain!!' she confirmed on Twitter, before leaving to Kevadia for a visit to the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) site.

The decision will come as a boon to Gujarat, which regularly faces water crises because of deficient or sparse rainfall, though Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) led by social activist Medha Patkar and the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) bitterly criticised the move.

The NCA permission will allow the dam height to be raised from the present 121.92 metres to 138.72 metres and the work is expected to be taken up after the monsoon.

The decision comes just a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office.


BS