The state government on Friday said that it had launched an ambitious project to prevent the Narmada water from flowing into the sea, and to supply one million acre feet of water each to the parched areas of Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Rs139 crore 32-km long water pipeline connecting Navda with Botad in Bhavnagar on Friday. He also performed groundbreaking ceremony of the projects to fill the Krishnasagar and Kaniad lakes and the pipeline projects of Goma and Sukhbhadar dams.
Modi said that the government had embarked on a major plan to fill the 77 dams as well as other water bodies in Saurashtra with Narmada water. He said that cost of the project would be more than the cost of Narmada project.
Modi used the occasion to lash out at the Congress-led UPA government for its anti-farmer policies. He said that country’s Capital New Delhi continued to face power issues, while even villages in Gujarat were getting round the clock power supply.
“Gujarat is willing to supply power to Delhi, but the Congress government does not have the transmission lines to do so,” he said.
Water supply and water resources minister Nitin Patel said that earlier drinking water was supplied in Saurashtra through trains, but this was not the case any more. He said that water availability had also led to higher agricultural output.
