Bhuj

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today started two pumping stations at Nani-Hamirpur and Manjuvas in Rapar taluka built at a cost of Rs.567-crore to provide 78,000-litres of water to the Kutch-Vagad region.

Later addressing a huge public gathering at Fatehgadh, she described the Narmada Kutch Branch Canal-based project to bring waters hundreds of kilometers away from the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) dam site at Kevadia colony near Madhya Pradesh border as a fine example of 21st century engineering feat for a water revolution of sorts.

Mrs. Patel said the project aims at lifting water by about 20-storey (60 metres) from the level of the SSP dam. Besides providing tap water to houses in the region in future, she said, it is likely to irrigate farmlands to quadruple farm production.

She recalled that the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of this project in 2011 and it was completed in four years. The project is sure to change the face of Kutch. The people living in arid regions know the importance of water all the more acutely. She hoped the people would make judicious use of scarce water.

The Chief Minister thanked the people living along the Narmada canal network for voluntarily surrendering their land for development works of state and national importance. She wondered as to why the people making hue and cry over the Modi Government’s Land Acquisition Bill at the Centre.

Minister of State Tarachand Chheda, BJP District President and MLA Pankaj Mehta hailed the Gujarat’s first woman chief minister Anandiben Patel’s farsighted planning to provide Narmada waters to water starved Kutch region. Narmada Nigam Chairman welcomed all. Others present on the occasion included Member of Parliament Vinodbhai Chavda, MLAs of the district and Directors of the Narmada Nigam.

– Information