Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river, the lifeline of Gujarat, on Thursday, reached its full reservoir level at 138.68 meters, with inflow of water in excess of 55,000 cusecs continuing from the upstream.
At full reservoir level, the dam’s live storage capacity has reached 4.37 million acre feet (sufficient to cover nearly 44 lakh acres with one foot of water).
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani performed an e-puja sitting at his residence in Gandhinagar and greeted citizens on the occasion. “With the help of Narmada waters, the age-old issue of drought and scarcity of water in Gujarat has become a thing of the past,” he said.
This is the second straight year that the Sardar Sarovar dam attained its full reservoir level capacity. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present when the dam attained its peak storage level on September 15, for the first time ever.
Also read: Heavy rains in Gujarat; 50% of dams approach overflow levels
After Modi took over as Prime Minister in May 2014, among the first decisions he took immediately after assuming office was to grant permission to take the dam height to 138.68 meters from its earlier 121.92 meters.
By June 17, 2017, the sluice gates were installed on the dam and closed to take the total dam height to 138.68 meter.
The dam now has 5,760 million cubic meters of water storage.
This year, Gujarat has seen good monsoon with 19 of its 33 districts receiving large excess or excess rainfall, and 12 getting normal rains till September 16.
Also read: Heavy rains in Gujarat; Surat, Anand receive heavy downpour
So far, the State has witnessed total sowing of 85.83 lakh hectares, which is about 75,000 hectares more than last year.
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