Opening Bhakra gates caused floods: Engineers’ body
Megha Mann/TNS

Ropar, August 28
The retrogressive decision of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to open spillways of the Bhakra reservoir caused floods, damage to crops and brought power losses to the state.

These observations have been made in a white paper issued by the All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on spillage from the Bhakra reservoir. The federation has demanded that the BBMB must allow filling up to 1,685 feet in case the inflow pickup in the coming days.

Chairman of the federation Padamjit Singh said the BBMB took the decision of shifting the date for achieving 1,680-foot level from August 31 to September10 out of fear psychosis. “This implies that even if there is surplus water inflow in the reservoir during first 10 days of September, in case the level is 1,680 feet, water would have to be spilled, thereby denying benefit of full storage up to 1,685 feet,” he said.

The BBMB opened spillways of Bhakra from August 22 to 27, releasing 1,00,947 cusecs of water with an energy loss of 814 lakh units at Bhakra and a consequential energy loss of 308 lakh units at Anandpur Sahib hydroproject. The total energy loss due to spillage worked out to be 1,122 lakh units.

“If spillage had not taken place, water could have been utilised in the subsequent months to generate power and villagers could have been saved from flood fury,” he said.

From August 22 to August 27, total inflow into the dam was 3.96 lakh cusec days (LCD) out of which 2.18 LCD was utilised for power generation, 0.77 LCD was stored and 1.01 LCD was spilled. “This means 25.5 per cent of the inflow was spilled, while 55 per cent was utilised for generation and 19.5 per cent stored during the period,” he observed.

Pointing towards factors responsible for breach in the Sutlej at Anandpur Sahib on August 24, he pointed out that on that day the inflow in the Sutlej and rivulets was already high due to rain. Additional spillage of 25,000 cusecs from Bhakra, when reservoir level was at a comfortable level of 1,673 feet, was totally unjustified, the paper said.

He revealed that as per the Indian Meteorological Department forecast on August 24, rainfall in Himachal Pradesh areas was likely to decline after 48 hours. On August 25, the forecast confirmed that rain in HP would decline after 24 hours. Even then the BBMB persisted with spillage of 25,000 cusecs of water on August 24 and 17,000 cusecs on August 25, he said.

Padamjit said the BBMB should adopt its previous years’ practice of filling reservoir up to 1,680 feet on August 31, while additional inflow between August 31 and September 20 could be stored up to 1,685 since filling season of Bhakra was up to September 20. “This way, even if the reservoir level reaches 1,685 feet on September 20, there is a further storage margin of 5 feet as per design limit of 1,690 feet,” he argued

With present level being just 1,675 and increasing by only 0.3 feet per day, any spillage beyond 1,680 feet would be totally unjustified and the BBMB must allow filling up to 1,685 feet in case inflow pickup in the coming days.

Commenting on the observations made in the white paper, BBMB member (irrigation) MK Gupta said, “Making observations is a democratic right. The BBMB took the decision only after taking its partner states into confidence. The Punjab Government is receptive and care for the life and property of the common man. We did whatever was the wisest.”