PM Modi to visit Sardar Sarovar Dam on 69th birthday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be offering prayers at the Sardar Sarovar Dam site in Gujarat on Tuesday, which also happens to be his 69th birthday.

Modi will visit the project site at Kevadiya village in Narmada district to celebrate the dam reaching its full reservoir level (FRL) of 138.68 metres for the first time.

The PM is scheduled to worship Ma Narmada at the dam site on Tuesday, said an officer of Gujarat’s Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL).

Bountiful rainfall in MP has helped in filling the dam in adjoining Gujarat.

A large quantity of water gushed into the SSD situated on the Narmada river’s downstream after sluice gates of MPs largest dam, Indira Sagar, and the Omkareshwar reservoir in Khandwa district were opened.

The floodgates of SSD were closed on June 17, 2017, 56 years after the foundation stone of the project was laid by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

For the first time since the height of the dam was raised in 2017, the water level reached its highest peak at 138.68 metres on Sunday evening.

The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) had in 2014 granted the permission to raise the height of the mega dam to 138.68 metres from 121.92 metres. The dam was inaugurated by PM Modi on September 17, 2017.

Talking to reporters in Gandhinagar ahead of Modi’s visit, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had said, “Although the gates of the dam are closed today, it will open the gates of development for Gujarat.”

“The project is a lifeline for Gujarat. This is a historic day for Gujarat as the government led by Narendra Modi has fulfilled the wish of the people of the state, who were yearning to see the completion of the project for decades,” he had said.

(with agency inputs)