The much-awaited Kalpasar project, which proposes to construct a dam across the Gulf of Khambhat to create a huge freshwater reservoir in water-scarce Saurashtra, has received a fresh impetus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Netherlands last month and signing of a letter of intent on technical cooperation between the two countries.
Officials familiar with the matter said that the detailed project report, which will determine the technical and economic feasibility of the project, is in its final stages.
It is expected to cost at least $The 1.2-crore project aims to store river water that currently flows into the sea and could transform water availability in Saurashtra, while improving connectivity and generating renewable energy, a Gujarat government official said.
The DRC project is underway and almost in the final stage with the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR) in Chennai, said BN Navalwala, Chairman of the Expert Advisory Group for the Kalpasar Project and former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources. He added: “They will complete their exercise and appear before the advisory group of experts. The group will examine it and, after finding it acceptable or with recommendations, will submit it to the government. We have entrusted the studies to internationally reputable institutions. The National Research Center is one of these institutions and all these studies have been conducted because this project requires it.”
The project proposes to construct a 64-kilometre-long dam across the Gulf of Khambhat to create a reservoir of about 2,000 square kilometres. According to Navalwala, the total storage capacity of the proposed reservoir will be 13,000 million cubic metres, which is larger than the Sardar Sarovar Dam’s capacity of 9,460 million cubic metres.
“One must appreciate this unique feature of the project – not a single village will be submerged. If you look at the map of Gujarat, it forms a semi-circle from Bharuch to Bhavnagar, and the reservoir will be constructed along it. The existing villages will remain. Some villages may lose access, but we can say categorically that there will be no displacement of any human being or villages,” Navalwala said.
The concept was first proposed nearly four decades ago by the late academician Anil Kane, former vice chancellor of MS University, Baroda, to address chronic water shortages in Saurashtra. It is named Kalpasar, after the mythical Kalpa Vriksha or wish fulfillment tree. A survey report from 1988 to 1989 confirmed the technical feasibility, but turning the idea into reality proved much more difficult. Successive governments have conducted multiple studies, revised the alignment, and set deadlines that have been repeatedly delayed, largely due to the project’s size and engineering complexity, creating a massive freshwater reservoir from the sea in one of the world’s most aggressive tidal zones.
According to the above-mentioned government official, the reservoir will be fed by rivers including Mahe, Sabarmati and Dhar. It is expected to irrigate nearly 10,000 hectares across nine districts of Saurashtra, reduce the road distance between Bharuch and Bhavnagar from 240 km to 60 km through a transmission corridor over the dam, and support 2,500 MW of renewable energy generation.
He added that Saurashtra has long faced recurring water shortages and remains dependent on Narmada Canal supplies, making large-scale storage projects a major focus of policy.
The biggest engineering challenge remains closing the dam in one of the world’s most extreme tidal environments, Navalwala said. “You start building the dam from both ends,” he said. “As construction progresses, the middle section becomes narrower and the tidal flow speed increases sharply. This is the main issue here – how to close the dam. It is an unprecedented technical challenge.”
He also cited concerns about the river’s water quality and environmental impacts. “All these rivers must meet permissible water quality standards. Today you know what is happening to the Sabarmati and Mahi rivers. This is a major issue that needs to be addressed,” he said.
The project will require environmental and coastal approvals before construction, which officials estimate could take about 15 years once approvals are obtained.
