Bhakra level receding a foot a day
Prabhjot Singh and Megha Mann
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Bhakra, June 23
Delayed monsoon, scanty rain in catchments area of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) are turning to be a cause of concern in the region. Water level in the Bhakra and Pong dams is receding by a foot a day while total generation from the BBMB plants has shown a considerable reduction than total generation in the corresponding period last year.

Power generation from various BBMB units has come down from 968 MUs in June, 2008, to 774 MUs this month.

Yesterday, the total generation at Bhakra was 159.1 lakh units (LUs), 28.92 LUs from canal powerhouse, 140.98 lakh units from Dehar and 16.14 lakh units from Pong.

Since the demand for both water and power shoots up during the paddy transplantation season, the BBMB authorities have been releasing 28,042 cusecs from Bhakra and 5,008 cusecs from Pong against inflow of 15,844 cusecs from the Sutlej and 5,816 cusecs from the Beas-Sutlej Link canal into Gobindsagar Dam.

Member (generation) of BBMB MK Gupta says the current inflow was less than half the inflow 50,000 to 60,000 cusecs recorded during June last year.

“We are meeting irrigation requirements of all partner states comfortably,” he said. Punjab Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon, however, has raised objections to additional releases made for Rajasthan.

The inflow at Pong has been only 2,257 cusecs.

The new legislation that prohibits farmers from paddy transplantation before June 10 coupled with a rise in day temperatures and shooting demand of power by agriculture, domestic and industrial sectors have aggravated the situation. This is corroborated by a public notice given by the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) saying that the demand for power on June 21 has touched a record 1,804 lakh units a day against 1,323 lakh units on the same day last year.

As of today, the total availability of power, the PSEB claims, is 1,460 lakh units, including power purchased at a much higher rate from outside sources.

At certain BBMB units, power generation has remained unaffected by dry run up to Monsoon season. The Nathpa-Jhakri project, located upstream the Sutlej, is running to its optimum capacity of 1,500 MW. Similarly, the Dehar project is also running to its capacity.

While Nathpa-Jhakri is releasing around 13,500 cusecs, Dehar is giving 6,000 cusecs for irrigation.

Padamjit Singh of the PSEB Engineers Association says that the Tehri Dam built on the Bhagirathi is also running at a margin of just one point higher than its minimum draw down level (MDDL). The MDDL for the Tehri project is 741.05 m and its present level is 740m. “When there is no panic in Uttarakhand over such a thin margin, why should Punjab worry? We are in a much more comfortable position.”

The chances of power supply position improving in the next few weeks looks bleak. The demand may continue to rise as paddy transplantation has been picking up with improvement in labour availability and use of mechanical transplanters.