Situation under control at Bhakra dam: BBMB

Chandigarh, Aug 21 (IANS) The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) here on Wednesday claimed to have successfully handled one of the worst floods in the region in 40 years.

The controlled release of water from the Bhakra Dam, which meet irrigation requirements of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, into the Satluj river from August 16 helped in keeping the dam deflection angle under control, BBMB Chairman D.K. Sharma told IANS.

"The situation has been handled in the most professional manner, at the dam located on Punjab and Himachal Pradesh border, he said.

The dam deflection is a routine phenomenon where the structure gets displaced minutely when the reservoir is filled close to its carrying capacity. It regains the original position when the water is discharged.

At present, the water level in the dam is 1,679.5 feet and the inflow is between 50,000 cusecs and 60,000 cusecs (a unit of flow equal to one cubic foot per second).

"An unprecedented hydrological event occurred on August 17 night due to inflow of 311,130 cusecs. It raised the water level to 1,681.33 feet on August 19," he said and added, it was more than 1988.

"For the dam's safety, we started controlled release of 19,000 cusecs through the spillway on August 16. It was increased to 41,000 cusecs on August 19, in addition to the release for the power generation through turbines," he said.

"The same water discharge (41,000 cusecs) from the dam is on," Sharma said.

Stating that the BBMB was monitoring inflows into the reservoir, he said the board had decided to bring down the reservoir level by 5 feet to 1,675 feet to handle the possible flood events.

Pointing to the the next immediate challenge -- the Met prediction of the fresh spell of heavy rainfall from August 23 -- Sharma said, "We have taken measures to save the downstream areas by regulating the outflow."