LATE October 1995, the Gujarat government asked the Dutch company Haskoning to prepare a pre-feasibility report of the Kalpsar project - envisaging a 30-km long dam in the Gulf of Khambat between Bhavnagar and Bharuch. The proposed 2,000 sq km area enclosed by the Rs 9.76-crore dam would hold sweet water drained by several rivers including the Narmada.

Haskoning had prepared the reconnaissance report in 1989, too. But scientists at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, have suggested alternative designs of the project. Haskoning has delcared the PRL alternative "worth considering".

Bharat Patak of the Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC), is sceptical about the project. At Rudsamatur reservoir in Kutch, which was constructed over 15 years ago and is far from the sea water line in Banni, even today months after monsoon, the water becomes saline. He remarked, "All the rivers draining in the Gulf are discharging pollutants and the number of industries is spiraling. Without any effective pollution control mechanism, it is difficult to imagine how Kalpsar will have usable water." The GEC feels that there should be detailed ecological impact studies on Kalpsar.

P A Raj, vice chairman and managing director, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNN), in a criticism note on the project says, "The yield series for the run-off of the Narmada adopted in the (Haskoning) report is for the period, The Kalpsar 1915 to 1962 presumably as adopted in Khosda Committee Report (1965)... I would recommend that the fresh yield series may be worked out for the period 1915 to 1988... It is my hunch, on initial examination, that 75 per cent dependable yield would work out approximately 20-30 per cent lower than the one adopted in this Report..."

About irrigating 7.0 lakh ha through Kalpsar, a senior irrigation engineer of Gujarat says, "There is already a separate proposal under consideration with the SSNN to increase irrigation by lifting surplus waters available after full power generation."

P P Patel of M S University, Baroda, says, "The bed sediments of the proposed lake have got inherent salinity and the Gulf sediments are likely to be clayey and saline. The upper catchment area will also contribute to the salinity of the proposed lake. The subsurface drainage would be an extremely slow process in view of the low permeability of the gulf sediments. Hence, there is doubt if the water will acquire the usable level of freshness."

It is felt that the Kalpsar project has been floated at a wrong time. It negates the Sardar Sarovar Project's claim that there is no alternative to the latter. Secondly, its scheme to use Narmada water in excess of the allocation made by the Narmada Waters Disputes Tribunal is considered a violation of the award. The cost of Kalpsar initially estimated as Rs 6,000 crore is now projected as Rs 13,000 crore, only to be quoted much higher by critics.