Bashir Pathan
March 25, 2005

Gandhinagar: Besides the recent Supreme Court order on Narmada oustees, another thing that could delay the completion of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in Gujarat is the shoddy rehabilitation of project-affected families (PAFs) by neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) had expected the entire
rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) programme to be completed by June 2006. It had hoped to take the height of the dam to 138.68 metres by 2006-end. But that is unlikely to happen, as the R&R programme itself will stretch beyond 2006, delaying the project by another two years or so. Allowing the Narmada Bachao Andolan’s application, the
Supreme Court had last week ruled that families affected by the SSP would be allotted land regardless of whether they were deemed temporarily or permanently affected by the dam project. The Supreme Court also said the major son of a PAF would be entitled to separate land allotment. This would mean resettling another 5,000 PAFs, mainly
from Madhya Pradesh, in addition to the nearly 20,000 people who will be displaced when the dam reaches full reservoir level of 138.68 metres. Unless PAFs are resettled, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) will not clear the raising of the dam height. The Sardar Sarovar dam now stands 110.64 metres high. In January this year, NCA’s environmental group cleared the construction up to 121.92 metres. But before the Grievance Redressal Authority conducted the physical verification of PAFs to recommend further raising of the dam height came the Supreme Court order. In fact, Gujarat has already resettled
its 4,600 PAFs at 121.92 metres, and the GRA has expressed satisfaction over this. But the sticking point is the rehabilitation in the other states. As work on the SSP is being delayed, the SSNNL incurs losses of about Rs 6 crore per day. Total project-cost escalation is being pegged at a whopping Rs 25,000 crore.