Dahej: Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel inspected the project site to get detailed information about the progress of the Bhadbhut Barrage Project being taken up on the Narmada River and reviewed the performance.

Bhadbhut Barrage Project is being undertaken to save the saline land of the Bharuch-Ankleshwar area by storing the freshwater of Lokmata Narmada, which is flowing into the sea in an unusable manner, by creating a freshwater lake. The scheme also aims to prevent frequent erosion and damage due to floods in Bharuch and Ankleshwar areas, store salt water for drinking and industrial use in this area, and prevent the inflow of sea water to Shuklatirth, 70 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the sea, thereby eliminating the problem of salinity.

The Chief Minister was informed in a review meeting that so far 53 percent of physical progress has been made in this project. 99 percent of the work of the first phase has been completed under the plan to carry out the construction of the barrage in phases to ensure smooth passage of the flood flow of the Narmada river. The plan is to complete the work of the remaining works of the barrage in two phases. Accordingly, the first phase of the work is planned to be completed in July-2026 and the second phase of the work, including the flood protection embankment, is planned to be completed in June-2027. With the completion of this work of the barrage, fresh water will be stored in the reservoir from July-2027, resulting in an annual revenue of approximately Rs. 900 crore from the collection of industrial and drinking water rates.

In the remaining work, in the first phase, the construction of cofferdam, girder casting, cement concrete block casting and hydro-mechanical work i.e. gate and gate lifting mechanism etc. are in progress. The work of fish pass and fisherman navigation channel has been largely completed and the work of approach road will be completed in May-2025 and the work of flood protection embankment in the available land, which is under progress, will be completed in December-2025, were also given to the Chief Minister during the review.

Chief Minister provided guidance and necessary suggestions in this review meeting to ensure that quality is maintained in all these works and that the work is completed within the specified time limit.

Bhupendra Patel during his visit also visited the lake and 90 MLD deep-sea pumping station being constructed at a cost of approximately Rs. 558 crore at Z Plot No. 93 in Dahej Industrial Estate of Bharuch district. Where he inspected the lake and got detailed information about the entire project through a video presentation.

He was given detailed information about the development and expansion of the entire industrial estate, PCPIR Region and Dahej-1,2,3, Vilayat, Saykha GIDC through three separate maps in the UPL-13 company premises by GIDC Superintendent Engineer  Partha Suthar.

It is worth mentioning that, approximately Rs. The work on the 180 ML pond and 90 MLD deep-sea pumping station, which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 558 crore, started in October 2022 and is expected to be completed by June next year. The water will be purified from the industrial estate and piped to this pond. After that, it will be pumped from here and released into the sea through a pipeline of approximately 3.46 km.DeshGujarat