According to highly placed sources, the decision was conveyed by Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel to representatives of the elected and administrative wings when they called on him recently.

Incidentally, the VMC had been hopeful that the Narmada water would be released into the Ajwa reservoir, which passes close by the canal, for more than a year now. Several representations had also been made in this context.

Since the Award ruled out directing water to the civic bodies, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will not receive water from the dam either, sources said, adding that the team had also been apprised about the uncertainty over when the Narmada water would be directed to the canals.

The chief minister is, however, said to have assured the VMC that it could draw water from the Narmada downstream -- from either Navagam or Chandod -- as the water level in these areas could not rise above a certain level.

With an eye to future requirements, the VMC General Board has already passed a proposal to set up a filtration plant at Nimeta to draw an additional 45 million litre gallons of water per day from the Ajwa reservoir. Currently, the city draws 45 MLD water from the reservoir.

The General Board has also approved a proposal to set up a filtration plant on the Mahisagar to draw surface water. The formalities of inviting tenders will be completed after an expert committee probing alleged technical and financial irregularities in the Raika and Dodka french wells on the Mahi submits its report.

Apart from investigating whether the wells were laid at the right sites, the committee will also suggest how they can be improved, as they are not working to the fullest installed capacities. Soon after coming to power in the VMC, the BJP had suspended then city engineer D R Gandhi for his alleged involvement in the case. Action was also taken against other officers.

Though a senior Government official confirmed that there would be no Narmada water for the VMC, neither Narmada Development and Major Irrigation Minister Jay Narayan Vyas, Cooperation Minister Ramnalal Vora nor the chief minister was available in Gandhinagar to comment on the issue. While Vyas was on tour, Patel was reported to be in Delhi.

In Ahmedabad, sources feared the Kotarpur Water Works project of the AMC would become a white elephant thanks to the state government's ruling out water from Narmada main canal to the municipal corporations.

This is in sharp contrast to the earlier correspondence between the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) and the AMC, according to which the latter was assured of water from the main canal passing from a distance of three km from the Kotarpur project site.

When contacted on phone, AMC steering committee chairman Surendra Patel said there would be no problem for Kotarpur. ``Let waters first flow in the canal, as the rest of all depends on that,'' he said.