ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to present an integrated perspective on the instruments through which sustainability of resource endowments is to be ensured in the Sardar Sarovar Project. It outlines the policy instruments required to translate the associated paradigms into real-life operational project plans. The Sardar Sarovar Project was the first Indian project to make an attempt to learn from the mistakes of the past and bring an enormously complex data system and interdisciplinary study methods to bear on determining the technical parameters of the project. Conventional project planning in most countries, especially in India, is based on annual rainfall or water flow cycles which, at best, are split up into monsoon and nonmonsoon periods. Planning future development options in Gujarat would depend on the success of sustainable development under the Sardar Sarovar Project and its overall management. The Sardar Sarovar Project is being implemented with a concern for holistic sustainability.
