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India Prime Minister Modi Inaugurates Controversial Dam Project

   MUMBAI --

   Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India's biggest dam on Sunday,
   ignoring warnings from environment groups that hundreds of thousands of
   people will lose their livelihoods.

   The controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in the
   country's western state of Gujarat that will provide power and water to
   three big states was dedicated to the people of India by Narendra Modi.

   The project has been beset by controversies since the laying of the
   foundation stone by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961. The
   construction of the project began in 1987.

   The dam is the second biggest dam in the world after the Grand Coulee
   Dam in the United States.

   Ahead of the inauguration Modi said in a tweet, "This project will
   benefit lakhs of farmers and help fulfil people's aspirations." (1 lakh
   = 100,000)
   The dam is expected to provide water to 9,000 villages and the power
   generated from the dam would be shared among three states -- Madhya
   Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

   The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), led by social activist Medha Patkar,
   has been protesting against the project, raising several environmental
   concerns.

   Construction on the dam had been suspended in 1996 following a stay by
   the Supreme Court which allowed work to resume, four years later, but
   with conditions.

   Patkar and her supporters started the protest against the inauguration
   of the dam on Saturday and the opening of its gates which would raise
   the level of water and risk displacing several villages.

   "Today is a very sad day for India, and for one of our biggest peoples'
   movements and struggle -- the Narmada Bacchao Andolan," Ravi Chellam,
   executive director at Greenpeace India said in a statement.

   "The Sardar Sarovar Project... signals ruin not development for tens of
   thousands of unsuspecting, hapless and poor farmers," Chellam added.