RELEASE TODAY Well below Sutlej capacity: BBMB
As the water level in the Bhakra reservoir touched the 1,669 feet mark on Friday evening, the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) decided to release additional water into the Sutlej river by Saturday morning.

While the BBMB on Thursday had decided the release would take place on Friday night, it was deferred to Saturday morning following a meeting on Friday. It was feared district administrations would find it difficult to deal with the heavy flow at night.

According to BBMB Member (Irrigation) M.K. Gupta, since the water level in the Bhakra reservoir was just a foot below the 1,670-foot limit, the board had no option but to release an additional 15,000 cusec of water from 8 am on Saturday.

With 35,000 cusec already being released, the Sutlej would now receive nearly 50,000 cusec from the Bhakhra reservoir.

“We cannot allow the water level to go beyond the 1,670 feet mark, as that can pose a danger to the structure of the dam.
We have decided to release the additional water slowly,“ Gupta said, adding there was no need to panic as the riverbed had the capacity to take nearly 2.5 lakh cusec of water. On All-India Power Engineers Federation chairman Padamjit Singh's statement that the BBMB should allow the level of the reservoir to go up to 1,685 feet, as was the practice in the past, Gupta said an expert committee of top engineers during a meeting had said the level should not be allowed to go beyond 1,670 feet.

“If we take it up to 1,680 or 1,685 feet, and suddenly there are heavy rains, then we will have to release more water to save the dam. That would create a flood-like situation in the plains. So instead of releasing the water at once, we have decided to release it gradually,“ Gupta added.