The Rs 6,000-cr project was initiated to solve North Gujarat’s water shortage by utilising the Narmada waters. It had three components: pumping ‘excess’ water from the Narmada canal into nine North Gujarat dams by laying a dozen-odd pipelines, each about a 100-km long; building an unlined canal from Kadana dam to Banas river across connecting 21 rivers in North Gujarat; and building two lakh farm-ponds.