India: The recent decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada by another ten metres is expected to come as a boost to cement companies. While part of the incremental demand is expected to come from the work on the dam itself over the next few months, a large portion of additional demand will come from the subsequent cannalisation work. Industry experts say that the total project demand would be to the extent of two-three million tonnes of ready-mix annually. ³It will lead to a further requirement of cement demand in Gujarat,² feels ACC executive director AK Jain. However, companies say that it would be difficult at this juncture to predict exactly what the total incremental demand would be.
Gujarat demand has been booming on account of construction work during the last few months. In fact, observers point out that they expect around a 25 per cent month-on-month, year-on-year demand increase in Gujarat for the current calendar year. The Narmada Control Authority has cleared the raising of the height of the dam to 110.64 metres. The work is expected to be completed in 120 days.
Analyst estimates point out that to raise the height of Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river, 190,000 cubic metres of concrete will be required. This would result in additional cement demand of 64,600t (0.34 tonne cement/cubic metre) in a month or approximately two per cent growth in monthly demand of Gujarat due to this development alone.
