BBMB’s mismanagement resulted
in spillage of water, says Padamjit

:RAJinder Kaur

Ropar

All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) chairman Padamjit Singh on Wednesday blamed water and power mismanagement by Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) for the spillage of water at Pong Dam.

In a statement, he said BBMB failed to step up generation during the period April to June this year despite the fact that water level in Pong Dam was already on higher side at 1345 feet on April 1.

He said last year BBMB had adopted a policy of conserving water at the Pong dam by keeping power generation at a low level of 19 percent of its capacity during the period April to August, 2010 which directly resulted in spillage during September.

He accused BBMB of following same faulty strategy this year too.

Instead of stepping up the generation to deplete the reservoir during the period April to June, 2011, BBMB repeated the mistake of 2010 by keeping Pong generation at a low level of 43 percent of capacity during April-July with the result that the water level was 1361 feet on August 1, he said.

Padamjit Singh said the filling limit being 1400 feet, the margin available was just 39 feet. Due to heavy rain in the catchment areas, one flood occurred on August 9 this year raising water level by 3.5 feet.

A second flood occurred on August 13 with inflow of over 2 lakh cusecs causing the level to rise by 6 feet in one day and the reservoir level crossed 1378 feet and next day it had further increased to 1382 feet.

Despite the fact that there was still a cushion of 18 feet storage upto 1400 feet, the spill way gates were opened on the afternoon of August 14, he said.

On Thursday, the water level in Pong Dam was 1387 feet with inflow of over 1.5 lakh cusecs and discharge of over 50,000 cusecs.

The opening of flood gates could have been avoided had BBMB not repeated the mistake of conservation strategy of 2010 in 2011.

Padamjit Singh said that in case of Pong dam with dependable inflows and no spillage, level would increase to 1391.45 on September 10. With mean

inflows, the level would rise to 1402.23 on September 10.

He suggested that water level be kept at 1395 feet on August 31, 1397 feet on September 10 and 1398 feet at the end of filling session.