The Gujarat government plans a Rs 159.50 crore barrage on the Daman-Ganga river near Namdha village in Vapi taluka, about 3 km downstream of the existing Vapi Weir. The state’s Narmada, Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpsar Department has commissioned the work on an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis, according to a state release reported by ANI via Asianet Newsable and by IANS via Social News XYZ. Neither report gives a completion date.
Both wires carry the same headline numbers: 5.49 million cubic metres (MCM) of gross storage, a catchment of 2,250.73 sq km, a pond reaching about 3.5 km upstream, and lift irrigation for 549 hectares across six villages: Namdha, Chandor, Mohan, Eklahare, Nahuli and Jamburi.
Read the numbers in the right order
The irrigation figure will get the attention, but 549 hectares is modest for a project of this cost. The state’s own data shows where the water goes today. In 2024-25 the Vapi Weir supplied 19 MCM to the GIDC Vapi industrial estate, 7.30 MCM for water supply schemes and 6 MCM to the Vapi Municipal Corporation, earning Rs 69.15 crore. Industry took close to 60 per cent of that water. The barrage’s cost works out to a little over two years of the weir’s water revenue.
The barrage serves a growing industrial town first and its farming fringe second. Vapi became a municipal corporation in 2025, and the release puts its population at about 2.3 lakh. It hosts one of Gujarat’s oldest chemical and paper clusters, which needs a steady water supply in the dry months.
Readers should not compare the 5.49 MCM storage figure directly with the weir’s 32 MCM annual supply. A barrage refills whenever the river flows, so its yield over a year can exceed its storage. What the extra pond does is hold water closer to the town and the industrial estate through the lean season.
Holding back the sea
The more interesting promise sits below the weir. The Daman-Ganga meets the Arabian Sea at Daman, downstream of Vapi, and the lower river is tidal. The release says the barrage will regulate tidal water and stop saline water from creeping up the riverbed, and that the stored stretch will recharge tube wells in Vapi town.
Salinity ingress is a familiar problem along Gujarat’s coast, from Saurashtra to the south Gujarat belt, and it slowly ruins wells and farmland. A tidal regulator near the mouth is the standard engineering answer. For Namdha and the neighbouring villages, sweeter groundwater could matter as much as the canal water itself, letting farmers who now rely on monsoon rain attempt a second crop.
What residents can expect
- Vapi households: the state promises better drinking water availability, but supply improvements will depend on Vapi Municipal Corporation’s own treatment and pipeline capacity.
- Farmers in the six villages: water will reach fields by lift, which means pumping costs. Watch for how the state prices it and who maintains the system.
- Commuters: the plan includes a road crossing over the river along with riverfront parks and boating, though the release gives no design or timeline for these.
What to watch
The release does not name the contractor or a completion date, and it does not say whether the project has environmental clearance. Vapi’s river stretch has a long record of industrial pollution complaints, so how the barrage affects water quality in a slower, deeper pond deserves attention. So does coordination with the Union Territory administration downstream at Daman, which shares the river’s mouth.
Sources: ANI via Asianet Newsable, IANS via Social News XYZ
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.