About Sardar Sarovar Dam:
- It is a concrete gravity dambuilt on the Narmada River at Kevadia in Gujarat’s Narmada district.
- The dam was named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
- It is the third highest concrete dam (163 meters) in India, the first two being Bhakra (226 metres) in Himachal Pradesh and Lakhwar (192 meters) in Uttar Pradesh.
- In terms of the volume of concrete involved in gravity dams, this dam will be ranked as the second largest in the world after the Grand Coule Dam in the USA.
- It is a part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada River.
- The river catchment area above the dam site is 88,000 sq. km. and has a spillway discharging capacity of 87,000 cubic meters a second.
- It has the longest canal network in the world and includes the Narmada Main Canal, around 2,500 km of branch canals, 5,500 km of distributaries, and other associated channels.
- The 458.3km long, 1,133 cumecs capacity Narmada Main Canal in Gujarat is the largest irrigation-lined canal in the world.
- Power benefits are shared among Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat in the ratio of 57:27:16, respectively.
