In the offing: Six new barrages, state’s first rubber weir in Ahmedabad

The six new barrages will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,500 crore and will take the total number of barrages on the river between Dharoi dam (in Mehsana) and Vasna Barrage (in Ahmedabad) to 14 by the next three years. While five barrages are completed, three are under construction.

In the long run, some of these barrages are also expected to help retain the surface water in the riverfront portion of Ahmedabad, which the state government is planning to extend up to GIFT City in Gandhinagar. In 2002, the government diverted the waters of the Narmada river into the Sabarmati to keep it rejuvenated throughout the year.

Currently, the water level is maintained in the riverfront by releasing Narmada water into the Sabarmati by closing the gates of the barrage at Vasna from where the water is released for irrigation in downstream villages.

The new barrages planned on the Sabarmati river are between the existing Dharoi dam in Mehsana district and Vasna Barrage in Ahmedabad city – within a total distance of 148 kilometre. The total length of Sabarmati river – from its origin in Aravalli hills in Rajasthan to outfall into the Arabian Sea near Gulf of Khambhat – is 371 km.

Union Minister for Home and Cooperation and Gandhinagar MP Amit Shah laid the foundation stone of one of the barrages at Ambod village of Mansa tehsil in Gandhinagar district on January 14 where he had mentioned the “14 dams (barrages)” coming up on the Sabarmati river.

Apart from Ambod, work is in progress to build two barrages at Fatepara village of Mehsana district and at Acher in Ahmedabad city.

The five barrages already existing are in the villages or location of Valasana and Hirpura of Mehsana district, Lakroda and Sant Sarovar in Gandhinagar district and city, and Vasna barrage in Ahmedabad city.

Six new barrages have been proposed at Chhelpura, Techava, Fudeda, Falu and Ged in Mehsana district, and Rajpur in Gandhinagar district.

Sharing details of the nine proposed or under-progress barrages on the Sabarmati, a senior officer of the Water Resources Department of Gujarat government said that they are moving ahead with a target of completing the task in the next three years.

Elaborating on the objectives behind the plan to have the barrages, the officer said, “The main objective is to improve the groundwater levels in the villages around the river while replenishing it with maximum available water. And the second objective is to rejuvenate the Sabarmati river so that it can have surface water for the maximum part of the year.”

The officer added, “Currently, the Sabarmati river gets dried up in the months of October-November. Once the barrages are built, we expect the river to have surface water at least till February. As the ground water levels improve, the period of the river having surface water may get further extended. This will also provide water security to the region while decreasing the rate of depletion (of groundwater level).”

The officer further said, “The water will also prove to be an alternate source of Narmada water on which the region is heavily dependent.”

As per the latest report of the Central Ground Water Board — National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2024 — out of the total 252 tehsils of Gujarat, 56 are categorised as Semi-Critical, Critical or Over-Exploited units in terms of annual groundwater extraction.

Out of the 56 such tehsils, 18 are from the districts of Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Gandhinagar.

Over-exploited units indicate tehsils where ground water extraction is exceeding the annual ground water recharge.

The critical units are tehsils where the stage of ground water extraction is between 90-100 per cent of the replenished groundwater. And the semi-critical units are those units where the stage of ground water extraction is between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of the replenished groundwater.

While eight of the nine proposed or under-progress barrages are being built by the Water Resources Department, the one at Acher in Ahmedabad city is being built by the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL). The barrage at Acher will be a rubber barrage.

A senior officer of SRFDCL said, “The rubber barrage will be built at the cost of Rs 55 crore. It will be part of a bridge-cum-barrage project of SRFDCL with a total estimated cost of Rs 290 crore. The bridge will be one more iconic bridge on the Sabarmati river in the city.”

The rubber barrage will be made of air-filled flexible rubber membrane which can be put to use by inflating and deflating to store or release the water in the river.

The officer added, “This barrage will be helpful in getting water for Riverfront, which the government is planning to extend right up to Gandhinagar. It will also be useful in providing water during crisis situations.”