Narmada water to be pumped into dams in Saurashtra for Rabi crops

“After assessing demands of Saurashtra farmers, plans have been drawn this year to fill up reservoirs in Saurashtra by pumping Narmada waters to them. In consultation with Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Water Resources Minister Kunvarji Bavaliya, demand was placed for water for dams in Saurashtra. Responding positively to that, the Chief Minister has taken this important decision in the wider interests of Saurashtra farmers,” the release quoted the Agriculture Minister as saying.

SAUNI is the ambitious project of the state government to lift Narmada waters from the existing canals of the Narmada dam project and pump them to 115 reservoirs of the Saurashtra region by an around 1200-km-long network of giant pipelines laid underground. The project envisages diverting one million acre feet (approximately 43560 mcft) of floodwaters, which overwise overflows the Sardar Sarovar dam across the Narmada river and drains into the sea, to Surendranagar and Morbi districts in Saurashtra through the existing conventional irrigation canal network and then pump them to nine other districts of Saurashtra through SAUNI pipelines.

As per the latest report of the water resources department of the state government, 114 dams in Saurashtra had gross storage of 58,318 mcft as of Friday, indicating overall storage was around 64 per cent of the designed storage capacity of 91,412 mcft. The additional Narmada waters will augment the availability of irrigation water to winter crops in around one lakh hectare (lh) in Saurashtra, the release said.

According to the latest data from the agriculture department, farmers have sown Rabi crops in 16.32 lh in Saurashtra with gram (chana) and wheat accounting for 5.20 lh and 4.03 lh respectively. Coriander (2.15 lh), cumin (1.61 lh) and fodder (1.32 lh) are other crops. Saurashtra’s 16.32 lh is around 40 per cent of the total 41.28 lh sown so far this Rabi season.

Incidentally, parts of Surendranagar, Morbi, Botad and Bhavnagar districts fall in the 18-lakh-hectare original command area of the Narmada dam project and they are getting Narmada waters for irrigation through the conventional canal network.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced SAUNI Yojana in 2012 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The original plans had estimated project cost at around Rs. 10,000 crores but it has shot up to more than Rs. 16,000 crores.