The document discusses the significance of resilience and inclusion in the planning and maintenance of dam infrastructures in India, particularly focusing on the Sardar Sarovar Dam. It highlights the dam's economic, environmental, and social benefits while also addressing the negative impacts of insufficient social inclusion, which led to controversies and displacement of local communities. The importance of life-cycle costing and adherence to Quality Infrastructure Investment principles is emphasized to ensure sustainable development and effective management of such infrastructure projects.

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Project
The resilience, inclusion or life-cycle costing issues in Dam Infrastructures
Project in India
Lesson from Sardar Sarovar Dam
Introduction
India is a large country with diverse geography. India is growing economy where urbanisation
is going at a fast pace which necessitates creation of modern infrastructures to serve huge
population.
A dam serves as a barrier to stop the flow of water and form important part of county’s
infrastructure (Fig 1). India is home to almost 5200 dams, some of them figure in top dams
globally, and constitute important part of the infrastructure system which help in energy
generation and agriculture production.
The geographical diversity also make India prone to different climatic risk and hazards like
floods, droughts, earthquake, landslides etc. which causes huge loss of lives, infrastructure and
finances every year which is likely to increase in severity with increasing climate change.
Resilience
Climate resilient infrastructure is a planned, designed, built and maintained keeping in view
the changing climate conditions. Such infrastructures are future ready. The Older dams pose
greater safety risks, displaces people, cost higher in terms of maintenance and have declining
functionality due to sedimentation1
. If in initial phase of development, proper attention is paid
to social and environmental consequences as enshrined in the principle of quality infrastructure
investment (QII), the outcome is better and the life of the dams could be longer. The risk may
also be mitigated sufficiently.
QII principals are outcome of G20 meeting in 2019 and provide a framework for approaching
infrastructure investment in line with GRID. The principals work for positive impact of
infrastructure, economic efficiency, resilience from climate change, and better governance.
India is one of the regions which is vulnerable to the impacts of the natural hazards and which
is likely to get intensified with severity of climate change. It is essential that dam infrastructure
should be planned, designed, built and maintained keeping resilience of the structures in view

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Fig.1. Sardar Srovar Dam
Inclusion
Dams provide a range of economic, environmental, and social benefits, including recreation,
flood control, hydroelectric power, water supply, water navigation, and wildlife habitat. In
India multipurpose dams have been providing water to the desert areas especially in western
India at the same time store excess water in rainy season and prevent flooding. Besides, these
Infrastructures helped India produce clean energy that powered the industry and household and
helped in the economic development.
However, non-integration of the concept of inclusion may lead to controversy and the outcome
is compromised. The case chosen for study is Sardar Sarovar Dam. This dam is built on the
Narmada river in Gujarat. It is reported to be one of the largest dams in the world. Having a
length of 1.2 kms and a depth of 163 metres, the dam is expected to be shared among the three
states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. When fully functional, it will supply
drinkable water to 40 million people irrigate 22,000 hectares of land2
.
However, it has been controversial infrastructure for the last six decades for various reasons. It
displaced about 200,000 local tribals and villagers from the catchment areas and damaged the
forest and ecology of the land3
. Controversy gave rise to a mass movement called 'Narmada
Bachao Aandolan'. This problem could have been averted by social inclusion into the design
and implementation of the project from the outset.

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Life cycle cost
The 1,450-MW Sardar Sarovar hydroelectric project was stated on Sept. 2017. The entire
project estimated cost was US$8 billion4
. The dams generated employment and boosted
economic development. However, social and environmental impacts was far beyond what was
estimated at the outset when the project was cleared in the late 1980s and the rehabilitation of
the submergence-affected population was just 20% completed when the project started5
. There
were many issues which delayed the project and raised the cost..
The assessment of cost may be based on the life cycle cost. A poor structure serve for a shorter
period and may be hazardous to the population. Therefore, it is the life cycle cost that matter
in the long run. Integration of economic efficiency, environmental considerations and
provisions for monitoring throughout the process will be productive. Thus, taking care of the
principles of QII ensures better financial and social returns and sustainable development.
References:
1. Canada-based United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and
Health
2. https://indianexpress.com/article/research/a-short-history-of-the-sardar- sarovar-
dam-on-river-narmada-4847807/
3. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/narmada-
issue-overview
4. https://www.hydroreview.com/business-finance/india-inaugurates-sardar- sarovar-
dam-after-completing-raising-dam-s-wall/#gref
5. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-the-sardar-sarovar-dam-boon-or-
bane/article19730554.ece