NARMADA FAQ - Answers to all critics
    IRRIGATION

The Sardar Sarovar Project will provide irrigation facilities to 17.93 lac ha. of land, covering 3112 villages of 73 talukas in 15 districts of Gujarat. It will also irrigate 75,000 ha. of land in the strategic desert districts of Barmer and Jallore in Rajasthan and 37,500 ha. in the tribal hilly tract of Maharashtra through lift. About 75% of the command area in Gujarat is drought prone while entire command (75,000 ha.) in Rajasthan is drought prone. Assured water supply will soon make this area drought proof.

    DRINKING WATER SUPPLY

A special allocation of 0.86 MAF of water has been made to provide drinking water to 135 urban centres and 8215 villages (45% of total 18144 villages of Gujarat) within and out-side command in Gujarat for present population of 18 million and prospective population of over 40 million by the year 2021. All the villages and urban centres of arid region of Saurashtra and Kachchh and all "no source" villages and the villages affected by salinity and fluoride in North Gujarat will be benefited. Water supply requirement of several industries will also be met from the project giving a boost to all-round production

    POWER

There will be two power houses viz. River bed power house and canal head power house with an installed capacity of 1200 MW and 250 MW respectively. The power would be shared by three states - Madhya Pradesh - 57%, Maharashtra - 27% and Gujarat 16%. This will provide a useful paking power to western grid of the country which has very limited hydel power production at present.
A series of micro hydel power stations are also planned on the branch canals where convenient falls are available.

    FLOOD PROTECTION
It will also provide flood protection to riverine reaches measuring 30,000 ha. covering 210 villages and Bharuch city and a population of 4.0 lac in Gujarat.
    WILD LIFE
It is also proposed to develop wild life sanctuaries viz. "Shoolpaneshewar wild life sanctuary" on left Bank, Wild Ass Sanctuary in little Rann of Kachchh, Black Buck National Park at Velavadar, Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Kachchh, Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary and Alia Bet at the mouth of River.
    ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION
SSP would generate 5,000 million units of electricity. On completion, annual additional agricultural production would be Rs. 1600 crores, power generation Rs. 400 crores and water supply Rs. 175 crores, aggregating about Rs. 2175 crores every year equivalent to about Rs. 6.0 crores a day.
    OTHER BENEFITS
Benefits to small and marginal Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe farmers would be as under :
Marginal farmers (< 1 ha.)
28.0 %
Small farmers (1 to 2 ha.)
24.4%
Scheduled Tribe
8.7%
Scheduled Caste
9.1%
    AGAINST ONE TRIBAL DISPLACED, 7 TRIBLES WOULD GET BENEFITS.
In addition, there will be benefits of fisheries development, recreational facilities, water supply for industries, agro industrial development, protection of conserved forest from grazers and secondary benefits viz employment generation, increase in vegetal cover in 3.4 M. Ham. of GCA, gains due to compensatory forest, tree plantation 100 times and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) fixation to large extent by 70 times.
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