Sardar Sarovar Dam

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Sardar Sarovar Dam
The Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada river
Location of Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat
Official name	Sardar Sarovar Dam
Location	Navagam, Kevadia, Narmada District, Gujarat, India
Coordinates	21°49′49″N 73°44′50″E / 21.83028°N 73.74722°E / 21.83028; 73.74722
Status	Operational
Construction began	April 1987
Opening date	17 September 2017
Owner(s)	Government of Gujarat
Operator(s)	Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Gravity dam
Impounds	Narmada River
Height	138.68 meters
Height (foundation)	163 m (535 ft)
Length	1,210 m (3,970 ft)
Spillways	30 (Chute spillway (auxiliary) – 7 : 18.30 m x 18.00 m, Service Spillway – 23 : 18.30 m x 16.75 m)
Spillway type	Ogee
Spillway capacity	86,944 m3/s (3,070,400 cu ft/s)
Reservoir
Creates	Sardar Sarovar Reservoir
Total capacity	9.460 km3 (7,669,000 acre⋅ft) (334.12 tmc ft)
Active capacity	5.760 km3 (4,670,000 acre⋅ft) (203.44 tmc ft)
Inactive capacity	3.700 km3 (3,000,000 acre⋅ft)
Catchment area	88,000 km2 (34,000 sq mi)
Surface area	375.33 km2 (144.92 sq mi)
Maximum length	214 km (133 mi)
Maximum width	16.10 km (10.00 mi)
Maximum water depth	140m
Normal elevation	138 m (453 ft)
Power Station
Operator(s)	Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited
Turbines	Dam: 6 × 200 MW Francis pump-turbine Canal: 5 × 50 MW Kaplan-type[1]
Installed capacity	1,450 MW
Annual generation	Varies from 1 Billion kWh in surplus rainfall year to 0.86 Billion kWh in deficit year.
Website www.sardarsarovardam.org

The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a concrete gravity dam built on the Narmada River near the town of Kevadiya, in Narmada District, in the Indian state of Gujarat. The dam was constructed to provide water and electricity to the Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation of the project on 5 April 1961.^[2] The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme funded by the World Bank through their International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity, using a loan of US$200 million.^[3] The construction for dam begun in 1987, but the project was stalled by the Supreme Court of India in 1995 in the backdrop of Narmada Bachao Andolan over concerns of displacement of people. In 2000–01 the project was revived but with a lower height of 111 meters under directions from SC, which was later increased in 2006 to 123 meters and 139 meters in 2017. The Sardar Sarovar Dam is 1210 meters long.^[4] The dam was inaugurated in 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.^[5] The water level in the Sardar Sarovar Dam eventually reached its highest capacity at 138.7 metres on 15 September 2019.^[6][7]

As one of the 25 dams planned on river Narmada, the Sardar Sarovar Dam is the largest structure to be built. It is the second largest concrete dam in the world in terms of the volume of concrete used in its construction, after the Grand Coulee Dam across the Columbia River, US.^[8][9] It is a part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectricity multi-purpose dams on the Narmada River. After a number of cases before the Supreme Court of India (1999, 2000, 2003), by 2014 the Narmada Control Authority had approved a series of changes in the final height and the associated displacement caused by the increased reservoir, from the original 80 m (260 ft) to a final 163 m (535 ft) from foundation.^[10][11] The project will irrigate 1.9 million hectare area, most of it in drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra.

The dam's main power plant houses six 200 megawatts (MW) Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity and include a pumped-storage capability. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main canal contains five 50MW Kaplan turbine-generators. The total installed capacity of the power facilities is 1,450 MW.^[12] The tallest statue in the world, the Statue of Unity, faces the dam. This statue has been created as a symbol of tribute to Vallabhbhai Patel.^[13]