Over 20,000 km of Narmada canals yet to be built: Gujarat CM

Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani today admitted in the state Assembly that canals, having a cumulative length of 20,951.73 kilometres, were yet to be constructed as part of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada project.

Rupani, who handles the Narmada portfolio, was replying to a written query, on the status of the canal network of the project, by Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar during the Question Hour today.

In his written reply, Rupani said that out of the total approved length of 71,748.19 kilometers, canals having a cumulative length of 20,951.73 km were yet to be built.

While the main canal, having a length of 458.32 km was already completed, 129.47 km of branch canals, 382.93 km of distributories, 2898.63 km of minor canals and 17,540.70 km of sub-minor canals were yet to be built across the state, Rupani said in his reply.

He said these canals would be completed at the earliest, subject to granting of permissions by various departments, as they passed through forests, sanctuaries and private lands.

Since sub-minor canals were being built in partnership with beneficiary farmers, the pending work of these canals will be finished as and when farmers gave permission to construct these canals, Rupani said.