This is what the state govt has to say on its efforts to supply water to Saurashtra

By our correspondent, Gandhinagar, 18 April 2013

Sardar Sarovar Nigam today in a statement said that Narmada has reached 3.1 crore people of Gujarat till date. At present 74,626 km works of Narmada canal are in progress.

The works already completed are:458 km main canal, 2139 km branch canal, 2392 km distributeries, 6610 km minor and 10194 km sub minor canal.

The works in progress are: 363 km branch canal, 1806 km distributeries, 7463 km minor canal. 38000 km sub minor canal works under-planning at present are to be executed through PPP model with water users groups.

As of today 7409 villages and 118 towns are supplied Narmada water through Narmada oriented water distribution pipe lines. It is wrong that in only distributery, minor and sub-minor canal network is essential to supply water to remote villages.

To construct kilometers of network of main canal, branch canal is engineering job that demands special skills. Geographical situation, crossing the rivers, hostile situations, limited space, land acquisition etc issues are involved when it comes to execution of canal networks. Gujarat govt has allotted Rs 9000 crore in last two years for such tasks.

In last three years, 16,839 ha private land has been acquired from 85,587 farmers. Thanks to this, today 198 works worth Rs 8151 crore are under progress in 11 districts. The work involves 34000 laborers, 4500 big machines at 700 places.

In last three years 954 lakh square meter earth works, 324 lakh square meter lining work, 517000 square meter concrete works are completed.

Today the irrigation reach is 6.63 lakh ha. After completion of works described above additional 9.44 lakh ha irrigated area will be achieved. Ultimately 16.7 lakh ha land out of total 17.92 lakh ha will get benefit of irrigation.

About Kalpsar project, the statement says that the state government has started 25 different important studies on this project, and most of them are near completion. The state government doesn’t want to take any short cut in this project. The government hopes that Bhadbhut barrage work will be completed in this year only.

The state government is supplying 121 crore liter water through state-wide water grid pipeline. In August 2012 this figure was 85 crore liter. The state has thus increased 40% supply.

Saurashtra and Kutch’s urban areas now get 40 crore liter supply, which was earlier 20 crore liter.

The state government has completed Sadulka pumping station on Dhrangadhra branch canal near Morbi in just two months and showed its willingness to supply water. Generally this task would take 12-18 months time with additional cost of Rs 30 crore. Thanks to this pumping station, 1101 villages and 22 towns of Rajkot, jamangar and Porbandar districts are getting 30 crore liter additional water supply.

Similarly the works at pipeline connecting Morbi and Narmada were completed in two months, thanks to which Morbi is presently getting Narmada water supply.

The state government has completed the 25 km pipeline works connecting Jetpur town and Bhadar-2 in only two months. Thanks to this Jetpur town gets 79-80 lakh liter water.

For the first time the state government has supplied Narmada water to Jamnagar district’s 398 villages, 8 towns and Porbandar district’s 118 villages and 3 towns.

Shetrunji dam oriented pipeline works worth Rs 92 crore are completed to supply daily 7 crore liter water to Bhavnagar city. The state government has also started Rs 50 crore works to increase capacity of important pumping stations. Most of the works are near completion.

The state government is willing to complete Swarnim Gujarat pipeline project in prescribed time limit. This project will be completed in one month. THis pipeline will supply 6-7 crore additional water to Junagadh city, Amreli and Botad through Narmada pumping station. Through this pipeline, Rajkot city also will be able to get additional water supply in the month of May. Rs 185 crore contingency plan has also been implemented.

The government has so far started 739 new bore-wells. 418 of them are in use. In last few months 11,265 hand pumps are irrected.

At present 588 villages are supplied tanker water.District Collectors are given power to operate more tankers wherever needed. The state government has appointed additional 150 experts to review and take action in connection with water supply.