PM Modi dedicates Sardar Sarovar Dam to nation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who celebrates his 67th birthday today, inaugurated and dedicated to the nation the Sardar Sarovar Dam, in Kevadia, Gujarat, nearly six decades after its foundation stone was laid.

Talking about the dam, an official release says that the increase in the height of the dam will facilitate a usable storage of 4.73 Million Acre Feet (MAF) and will greatly benefit the participating states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

This project will benefit lakhs of farmers and help fulfil people’s aspirations,” Modi tweeted a day before the inauguration. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had called the project as “Gujarat s lifeline” noting that the agriculture income and production of farmers in the state more than doubled because of it.

The foundation stone of the dam was laid on April 5, 1961 by the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. However, it took 56 years to complete its construction.