Press Contact:
Dr Ravi Kuchimanchi: 022-25566703
Prof. Om Damani: 9323003401
E-mail:
khiyali@gmail.com SSP Engineers Lower Claim on Power Generated Today Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) engineers claimed (Reference 1 below) that only 550 Million Units of additional electricity (worth about Rs 110 crores) will be generated every year if the Sardar Sarovar dam is taken to 121.9 mts. Considering that the transmission and distribution losses in India are close to 50%, this electricity is barely sufficient to power 30,000 households in a city like Mumbai, that have a refrigerator, air-conditioner and colour television, with an average consumption of 25 units a day. On the other hand, 35,000 rural families including farmers and adivasis are facing displacement without rehabilitation, losing not only their houses but also tens of thousands of acres of fertile agricultural land to submergence due to the increase to 121.9 mts. It should be clear that the dam construction should be halted until each and every family is rehabilitated as per the Narmada Tribunal Award, 6 months before submergence. The Award's rehabilitation law has been upheld by the Supreme Court in Oct 2000 and March 2005.
So far more than Rs 21,000 crores have been spent on the Sardar Sarovar Project and considering this scale of expense, electricity benefit of 550 Million Units or Rs 110 crores a year is not something that would lure the Review Committee of NCA that met today nor the Prime Minister who may make a final decision, to ignore the rehabilitation rights of the affected families. Regardless of the benefits generated, the dam cannot be constructed without rehabilitating the affected families in violation of the nation's law and the displaced people's right to life and livelihoods. The additional 550 Million Units generated if the dam were taken to 121.9 mts, will be shared by states of Gujarat, Maharshtra and Madhya Pradesh as per the Narmada Tribunal Award and will not be sufficient to address the power crisis in any of these states. For example Maharshtra's share is 27% of 550 MU, which works to 149 MU and is just 0.3% of 50,000 MU generated annually in Maharashtra.
Earlier this week, about 700 scientists and engineers, several of them faculty at renowned institues like IITs, IISc Bangalore and American universities like Yale and University of Maryland had openly challenged the SSP executive engineer Ashok Gajjar's baseless claim reported in a major Indian newspaper (Reference 2 below) that Rs 2500 crore worth of electricity will be generated every year if the dam was taken up to 121.9 mts. Their open challenge (Refernce 3 below) is at the Association for India's Development web-site
www.aidindia.org. The figure coming out from SSP engineers today of 550 Million Units (Rs 110 crores) is more accurate and is in the ball-park of the projections made by the challenging scientists and engineers. However it should be noted that electricity is only a temporary benefit and once the plannned irrigation network of the Narmada Valley Projects is completed and waters are diverted for irrigation instead of electricity generation, the additional units generated will fall further from 550 Million Units to about 150 Million Units. SSP engineers say that SSP's canal network will be completed by 2010.
-- Ravi Kuchimanchi, Founder Association for India's Development
-- Om Damani, Faculty, IIT-Bombay. Mumbai.
-- Ravishankar Arunachalam, Faculty, IIT Madras, Chennai
References for More Information:
1. NDTV on april 15, 2006 telecasted an interview of SSP engineers and also put out the news bulletin at:
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Narmada&slug=Panel+reviews+height+of+Narmada+dam&id=19184&callid=0&category=National This bulletin quotes the SSP engineers as saying: "once the height is raised and the riverbed plant becomes operational, an additional 550 million units will be produced per year"
2. 1. Indian Express, Sunday edition, April 2, 2006 on SSP Executive Engineer's earlier claim:
"According to executive engineer Ashok Gajjar [SSP], a total of 3.48 crore units of power worth Rs. 7 crore would be generated per day once the dam height is raised to 121.92 metres. Annually, that amounts to power worth Rs. 2500 crore."
("Height of Hurdle", Sunday Express, -- April 2, 2006) 3. Open Challenge to SSP Engineers Petition Web-site:
http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada_petition/index.php 
