The Kutch Branch Canal (KBC), which stretches from the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam in Gujarat’s Mandvi taluka, 750 kilometres distant, to the final village there, Mod Kuba, on July 6, will be opened on Sunday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Officials of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) claim that KBC is the “longest branch canal in the world” and that it cost Rs 6493 crore to build.
Through the Saurashtra Branch Canal, its six sub-branch canals, and the canal system in north Gujarat, the Saurashtra and North Gujarat regions have been getting Narmada waters. The KBC, which originates at Salimnagar in the Kankrej taluka of the Banaskantha district and offtakes from the Narmada Main Canal (NMC), was delayed due to the numerous engineering difficulties encountered when building on the Rann of Kutch’s terrain and the need to acquire land totaling about 115 hectares that was still outstanding in the Anjar, Gandhidham, Mandvi, and Mundra talukas.
While some of Kutch’s sub-canals have been in use since 2017, the KBC will supply water for irrigation to 182 communities with a culturable command area (CCA) of 1,12,778 hectares in places like Mundra and Mandvi (278,561 acres). Additionally, it will deliver drinking water in each of the district’s 10 municipalities and 948 villages.
Now that the Statue of Unity is situated at Kevadia (now Ektanagar), in the Narmada District, the KBC is prepared to transport water over its complete length of 733 kilometres to Mod kuba.
According to SB Rao, Chief Engineer, Kutch, SSNNL, the project got underway in 2008 and crosses through Dudhai village, the epicentre of the earthquake in 2001. “We hired IIT experts to produce plans to make sure the seismic activity in the area was taken into account. Additional reinforcing has been applied.
The KBC is 357.185 km long in total, of which 82.30 km are in the districts of Banaskantha and Patan. Roughly 10 km of the canal traverse through the Rann of Kutch, an arid region of the desert.
Given the topography and the fact that the water’s final destination is in the Kutch district, which is on a higher level, three pumping stations have been constructed, the first two at Munjasar and Nani Hamirpur at a height of 18.21 metres each, and the third at Bhachau at a height of 18.72 metres.
According to Rao, the water is raised to a total height of 56 metres, or the height of an 18-story skyscraper.
While the branch canal’s construction was finished in May, only roughly 1200 km of the 5000 km network of minor canals needed to create the distribution network had been finished. Rao further stated that the entire network is expected to be finished by the following year.
