Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the first phase of Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana (SAUNI). The SAUNI Yojana is aimed at providing surplus water from Narmada river to Saurashtra region. The project has envisaged use of 43,500 million cubic feet (mcft) flood water of Narmada for the region to supplement about 115 existing dams in the interest of farmers and people.

Divided into four links, the project will see Link-1 filling 30 dams, while Link-2, Link-3 and Link-4 will fill-up 17, 28 and 40 dams with Narmada water, respectively.

The project will see water being supplied by way of pipelines covering a length of about 1,126 km pipelines for the entire four links. Work on the first phase of the four links pipe canals began in April 2014, while work on the the rest three links, of about 230 km in length, is in progress, out of which work on 222 km pipes have been completed so far.

The irrigation project is expected to cover over 1 million acres of agriculture land in Saurashtra region. The state government has invested about Rs 12,166 crore in the project.