Rajpipla, Sep 14 (PTI) Aided by bountiful rains in its catchment areas, the water level of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat’s Narmada district reached 138.46 metres on Wednesday evening, just shy of 22 cms from achieving its full reservoir level (FRL) of 138.68 metres, officials said.
This is for the first time this monsoon season that the water level of the dam, located near the iconic Statue of Unity at Kevadia, has reached so close to the FRL.
The dam’s catchment areas also fall in the adjoining Madhya Pradesh.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is scheduled to visit the dam site on Thursday morning when the water level is likely to reach the FRL of 138.68 metres (455 feet), the officials of the state information department said.
As per an update released by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), the dam had been receiving an inflow of 2.23 lakh cusec of water, while 1 lakh cusec of water was being released through its ten gates.
SSNNL is a Gujarat government PSU that administers this giant hydropower and irrigation project.
Out of two powerhouses built on the dam for production of electricity, 42,519 cusec water was being released in riverbed and 17,273 cusec in canal-head powerhouses, said the update.
With all three combined, a total 1.59 lakh cusec water was flowing out of the Narmada river on which the dam has been built. SSNNL said from 10 am on Thursday, the amount of water to flow out of the dam will be increased to 1.95 lakh cusec.
When the dam, the second biggest in the world, reaches its FRL, it will be the third time the facility will be achieving that mark since Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the mega water resources project to the nation on September 17, 2017, after its height was raised to 138.68 metres.
The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) had given its final approval to the Gujarat government to raise the height of the dam by about 17 metres to 138.68 metres from the then-existing 121.92 metres in 2014 soon after Modi became the Prime Minister.
The radial gates on the dam were ready in 2017, and all the gates were opened for the first time in 2019. The dam reached its first FRL on September 15, 2019, and then again on September 17, 2020.
The project coveres four major states – Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. PTI KA RSY RSY
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