Chandigarh- All floodgates of the Bhakra and Pong dams will stay open for the following four-five days as heavy rains in catchment areas this week have alarmingly elevated the water degree within the reservoirs, a senior official of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) that regulates each dams stated on Wednesday.
Hundreds of villages in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh situated alongside the swollen Satluj and Beas rivers have been inundated with the opening of floodgates of the dams because the influx of their reservoirs has alarmingly elevated owing to torrential rains in its catchment, primarily within the hill state.
“For the next four-five days the controlled release of water from the floodgates of both Bhakra and Pong dams would continue to keep the water in the reservoirs at the safe level, ” BBMB Secretary Satish Singla instructed the media right here.
He stated that the board is constantly monitoring the state of affairs. “With the heavy rainfall from August 12 to 14, the water inflow in the both dams was alarmingly high. Thereafter the management decided to release excess water through the floodgates to ensure the safety of the dams, ” he stated.
“Now the inflow in the reservoirs has reduced with the decline in the rainfall activity, but the water level is still high. We will release the water in a phased manner in the coming days as the Met Department predicted no major rainfall activity in the region, ” stated Singla, including, “We are releasing the water after intimation the companion states.”
The board is at present releasing 80, 000 cusecs of water on a regular basis from Bhakra and almost 1 lakh from the Pong dam.
Both dams serve the irrigation necessities of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
With the opening of the floodgates, flood-like state of affairs prevailed primarily in Punjab’s Ropar, Anandpur Sahib and Hoshiarpur districts and Himachal’s Kangra district.
In Punjab, the inundation of villages has been reported second time inside a month, severely impacting the standing crops.
Currently, the water degree within the Bhakra dam’s Gobind Sagar reservoir and the Pong dam reservoir stood at 1, 677 ft and 1, 398 ft, respectively.
The BBMB did not launch the floodgates when the area noticed torrential rains on July 8 and 9. For the primary time the floodgates have been opened on August 15.
The Pong dam reservoir is unfold over an space of 41 km with a most width of 19 km in Himachal Pradesh.
It got here into existence after the development of the dam on the Beas river in 1975.
The Bhakra undertaking is a marvel in engineering.
The 225.55 metre excessive dam is of concrete straight gravity sort having a gross storage capability of 9, 621 million cubic metre.