ગુજરાતી
English
Dilip Patel
Ahmedabad, 10 June 2026
The Irrigation Department of Gujarat Government is hiding the details of irrigation from Narmada. Since 2020, it has stopped disclosing details of the actual amount of irrigation taking place in the fields. Now it shows irrigated areas as potential irrigation. But it does not give details of how much irrigation is actually taking place.
Details of irrigation societies demanding water from the canals of Narmada Dam should be disclosed, but this is not being done. It does not give details of how much money the societies have given for irrigation.
Because of Corona it has stopped giving figures.
In Gujarat, the Irrigation, Water Resources, Water Supply department was primarily held by Kuvarji Bavaliya as the Irrigation Minister from 2019 to 2026.
Earlier, Jai Narayan Vyas, Narottam Patel, Babu Bokhiriya, Nitin Patel, Parvat Patel, Chalu Kunwarji Balaliya have been in charge of irrigation in the cabinet.
Original Approved Cost Rs. Was 6,406 crores.
Revised Official Project Cost Rs. Shows Rs 33,413 crore. The registered cost by 2025 will be around Rs. Shows Rs 31,800 crore. But the comprehensive estimate including dam, entire Narmada Canal system, loan and interest is Rs. It could be more than 60 to 70 thousand crores.
The Water Resources Department’s budget in 2021 is Rs. 8 thousand crores to increase to Rs. 2026. It has become 13 thousand crores.
Instead of building ponds, the government talks about pipelines.
Water pumped into lakes is considered irrigation. Rs.100 crore for providing Narmada water to 194 lakes and 6 small irrigation projects. A plan worth Rs 451.67 crore was approved. It is said that about 5,492 hectares of land is being irrigated.
This is a fraud.
There is a total of 1 crore 9 thousand hectares of cultivated land here, in which there are 53 thousand farmers.
In which a total of 53 lakh hectares are irrigated through bores, wells, lakes and canals.
There are 45 lakh hectares which are irrigated once.
There are 2 lakh 58 thousand hectares which are irrigated twice.
The area where there is no irrigation is 52 lakh hectares.
Figures for 2026 show that 18 lakh 500 hectares are irrigated through canals.
Whereas 19 lakh hectares are irrigated from wells and 18 lakh hectares are irrigated from other wells.
All types of irrigation take place in 63 lakh hectares.
Actually, irrigation
In 2008, the area irrigated through canals from all the dams including Narmada was 8 lakh 56 thousand hectares.
In 2023, the total irrigation area of all the dam canals has increased to 18 lakh 52 thousand hectares.
This means that canal irrigation from all the dams including Narmada has increased by 10 lakh hectares in 15 years.
Canal irrigation increased in 15 years
District 2008 – 2023 – Increase
Surendranagar 35300 – 150000 – 1,14,700
Morbi ***** – 115800 – 100000
Ahmedabad 53900 – 91700 – 37,800
Banaskantha 16300 – 135300 – 1,19,000
Vadodara 32400 – 110800 – 78,400
Chhota Udaipur ***** – 19200 – 0000
Narmada 9500 – 16700 – 7,200
Gandhinagar 3300 – 12100 – 8,800
Dangs 0 – 0 Bharuch 53900 – 52900 – 000 Kheda 51800 – 73700 – 21,900 Anand 68900 – 112000 – 43,100 Mehsana 45300 – 91900 – 46,600 Patan 5300 – 84600 – 79,300 Panchmahal 23800 – 17100 – 000 Dahod 1100 – 32400 – 000 Sabarkantha 23100 – 32800 – 9,700 Mahisagar ***** – 39900 – 30,000 Aravali ***** – 31700 – 15000 Bhavnagar 86800 – 61100-000
Botad ***** – 21200 – 000
Kutch 29200 – 123000 – 93,800
Rajkot 25000 – 69700 – 44,700
Total Irrigation 6,00200 – 16,50200 – 10,50,000 (9,74,400)
Districts other than Narmada
Valsad 11000 – 42000
Navsari 68900 – 45600
Surat 136900 – 90400
Tapi 11200 – 38800
Amreli 7800 – 28300
Jamnagar 21600 – 49200
Dwarka ***** – 5700
Junagadh 34000 – 27200
Somnath ***** – 25800
Porbandar 0 – 4500
Total 856300 – 1852900 (Google Translate from Gujarati, see original Ahewal) 
