Vadodara: The water level of Sardar Sarovar dam on river Narmada in Kevadia of central Gujarat is almost close to the full reservoir level this evening on the eve of the PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the central Gujarat town tomorrow on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Statue of Unity.

The water level of the dam reservoir, called the lifeline of water supply in this western state, has not come down below 138 meter mark since September 15 this year when it had reached the full reservoir level ie., the highest point of 138.68 meters for the first time. PM Modi had also visited the dam after two days on his birthday on September 17 to participate in Namami Devi Narmade Mahotsav event of the state government to mark the filling of the dam to its full level after increase in the height two years ago and had offered prayers to Narmada.

According to the Narmada Flood Control room here, the water level at 4 pm this evening was 138.57 m and was almost constant with outflow of 10692 cusec and inflow of 11494 cusec. The intermediate catchment areas of Narmada in central Gujarat including Vadodara had seen moderate rain in last 24 hours. The water level was at 138.33 m on October 28. None of the 30 gates on the dam have been opened.

Notably, after installation and closure of 30 gates on the dam in 2017, its maximum height increased from 121.92m to 138.68 m.

. The gross storage capacity of water in the reservoir that supplies drinking water to over 3 crore or more than half of the population living in 167 towns and more than 10 thousand villages of this state,was 9460 Million Cubic Meter (MCM) while the live storage capacity was 5760 MCM.

Notably, the gates were opened for the first time in the morning of August 9 this year to release water even as the water level in its reservoir touched a record all time high of that time at 131.45 m due to heavy inflow caused by heavy to very heavy rain in the catchment areas of river Narmada.

Due to the discharge of water in river from the reservoir, one of the six units of the river bed hydel power production system is operational today. It houses six 200 MW Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity and include a pumped-storage capability. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main canal ie canal bed contains five 50 MW Kaplan turbine-generators. One of these was also currently operational .The total installed capacity of the power facilities is 1,450 MW.