Gandhinagar/Kevadia: With the closure of sluice gates of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada in Kevadia in Narmda district of central Gujarat, the maximum average period of over-flow from the dam would likely come down to 15 to 20 days a year as compared to the earlier 50 to 60 days, a senior official of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd today said.

After start of the closing process of the gate commenced in presence of CM Vijay Rupani and Dy CM Nitin Patel today, a GM level official of the project said that as the overlow level of the dam would now go up to 138.68 meters as compared to the current 121.92 m, the over flow period would also come down drastically.

‘There would also be years when there won’t be any overflow at all. Last year for instance the overflow amount was around 3 million acre feet (MAFT) and if the inflow to the dam remains on that pattern owing to an increase in the storage capacity by 3.46 MAFT (from existing 1.27 MAFT to 4.73 MAFT – with a rise of 3.75 fold ), all the excess water wold be retained and there won’t be any overflow at all. However, at times owing to heavy inflow, we have seen 5 to 6 MAFT of water overflow and our initial study says that the overflow period would come down drastically to on an average 15 to 20 days a year that too during peak monsoon season with heavy rains in the catchment areas,’ he said.

He said that the 30 gates (7 with 60x60ft dimension and remaining 23 with 60x50ft dimension), would benefit people of Gujarat in many ways. The larger availability of water in the reservoir would mean a bigger water security in the drought years. The electricity production through the two hydro units associated with the project with total capacity of 1450 MW would also go up by 40%.

To a query he said that despite the closure of gates and possibility of significant reduction in overflow of water from the dam, there won’t be any problem with supply of water for ambitious SAUNI scheme meant for carrying excess water to dams of Saurashtra.

‘One MAFT of water was allocated for the SAUNI yojana which would either be in the form of overflown water or the excess water stored in the reservoir. The water would be redirected for SAUNI scheme through our canals. As a large part of the overflowing water goes to the sea and wasted through downstream. the benefit now would be that the wastage would be minimal or zero,’ he said.

The dam overflowed for 80 days in 2013-14, 19 days in 2014-15 and 19 days in 2015-16. The overflow though causes huge wastage of water but it also attracts a large number tourists to see the splendid water fall.

As the gates have been closed just before the monsoon season, it would be interesting to see whether the dam overflows in the first year after it or not.

DeshGujarat