SC judgement on Narmada dam welcomed

Ahmedabad, May 8 (UNI) Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) Chairman P K Laheri today welcomed Supreme Court judgement allowing construction work on Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) dam on Narmada river to continue.

Mr Laheri told UNI that the construction work is on full swing and 50 per cent work on raising its height from 110.38 metre to 121.92 metre had been completed since the apex court's judgement a month back.

Meanwhile, NGO Narmada Abhiyan Executive Chairman Jaynarayan Vyas described the apex court's judgement as a well-balanced verdict saying that the raising of dam height has given a sigh of relief to the people of four beneficiary states Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and at the same time the Prime Minister has been entrusted with the job to look into the rehabilitation of the families of project affected people.

Mr Vyas, who is also former Narmada Development Minister, further stated that this was the second landmark judgement on Narmada issue by the apex court since its earlier order to resume the construction work on dam on October 18, 2000.

He said, once the dam height is raised to 121.92 meter, the concrete construction part would be almost ones, because after that it would amount to just place 16.5 meter (55 feet) high gates to reach the final height of the dam at 138.05 meter.

Mr Vyas said that the project would benefit all beneficiary states to overcome their water scarcity and power shortage crisis.

While, National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) President V K Saxena also welcomed the verdict saying that his petition exposing the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activitst Ms Medha Patkar is also likely to come up for hearing in Supreme Court on July 7.

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