Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated world’s second biggest dam Sardar Sarovar, 56 years after its foundation stone was laid by former PM Jawaharlal Nehru.

About Sardar Sarovar Project:

• The Sardar Sarovar Project is one of the largest water resources project of India covering four major states – Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on the Narmada river near Navagam, Gujarat in India.
• The project was vision of India’s first deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to arrest excess flow of water from Narmada River into Arabian Sea.
• The foundation stone of project was laid out by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on April 5, 1961.
• The project was executed by Gujarat government’s Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNL).
• It is the largest dam and part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada river.
• The Sardar Sarovar Dam has two power houses – river bed power house and canal head powerhouse.
• The two powerhouses have the installed capacity of 1,200 MW and 250 MW respectively.
• The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity.Dam’s spillway discharging capacity (30.7 lakhs cusecs) would be third highest in the world.
• It is the second biggest concrete gravity dam in the world after the Grand Coulee Dam in the United States.
• It will irrigate more than 22,000 hectares of land, mostly from drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra.About 57% of electricity produced from dam goes to Maharashtra, while Madhya Pradesh gets 27% and Gujarat gets 16%.

Source:TH