The Sardar Sarovar Project is one of the largest water resources project of India covering four major states - Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Dam's spillway discharging capacity (30.7 lakhs cusecs) would be third highest in the world.
With 1133 cumecs (40000 cusecs) capacity at the head regulator, and 532 km. length, the Narmada Main Canal would be the largest irrigation canal in the world.
The dam will be the third highest concrete dam (163 meters) in India, the first two being Bhakra (226 metres) in Himachal Pradesh and Lakhwar (192 meters) in Uttarakhand.In terms of the volume of concrete involved for gravity dams, this dam will be ranking as the second largest in the world with an aggregate volume of 6.82 million cu.m. The first is Grand Coule Dam in USA with a total volume of 8.0 million cu.m. This dam with its spillway discharging capacity of 85,000 cumecs (30 lakh cusec), will be the third in the world, Gazenba (1.13 lac cumecs) in China and Tucurri (1.0 lac cumecs) in Brazil being the first two.
The Reservoir:
The reservoir would occupy an area of 37,000 ha. and would have a linear stretch of 214 kilometer of water and an average width of 1.77 kilometer. The Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of the Sardar Sarovar Dam is fixed at RL 138.68 metres (455 feet). The Maximum Water Level is 140.21 metres (460 feet.) while minimum draw down level is 110.64 metres (363 feet.). The normal tail water level is 25.91 metres (85 feet.).
