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dam-l LS: Indira Sagar project: MP to focus on power
Source: Economic Times, June 30, 2000
Indira Sagar project: MP to focus on power
K S Shaini
BHOPAL
LACKING, as it does, the wherewithal to finance the Rs
5,000-crore Indira Sagar project on Narmada, the Madhya
Pradesh government has decided to concentrate only on the
power component of the multipurpose project.
The government will seek loan from Power Finance
Corporation for the purpose. Alternatively, the possibilities of
forging a joint venture with the Union government or the
National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) will be explored.
The Indira Sagar project at Punasa in Khandwa district is the
biggest of the 29 major projects contemplated in the
Narmada valley. The 92-metre high and 654-metre long dam,
on completion, will form the biggest manmade lake in the
country with an area of around 1,000 sq km.
The project is expected to irrigate 1.23 lakh hectares and
will have an installed capacity of 1,000 mw. The dam is
crucial for the Narmada project as it will make regulated
releases of water to the further downstream Onkareshwar,
Maheshwar and Sardar Sarovar dams.
However, the NBA-sponsored anti-Narmada project
campaign and acute financial constraints have taken their
toll on the project, leading to massive time and cost
over-runs. When work on the project was launched in 1987,
it was expected to cost Rs 1,400 crore and was to be
completed by 1995.
The project is still languishing and its cost is now estimated
to be around Rs 5,000 crore. With the current flow of
finances, the project will take another 30 years.