Sardar Sarovar to release four lakh cusecs of water

With close to 2.8 lakh cusec of water flowing in from the Indirasagar and Omkareshwar dams in Madhya Pradesh as well as the rainfall in the catchment area as of 6pm on Saturday, the SSNNL has decided to increase the outflow from 3 lakh cusecs to 4 lakh cusecs, thus sounding an alert in villages located on the riverbank in the three districts.

Chief Engineer, SSNNL, RG Kanungo The Sunday Express, “There is a heavy inflow from Indirasagar and Omkareshwar dams, which are also around their FRL… We have rainfall in the intermediate catchment areas. Generally, it takes about 12 hours for the water released from Omkareshwar to arrive at the Sardar Sarovar dam after we receive the input of the release. We have decided to increase the outflow to 4 lakh cusecs, to keep in mind the heavy rainfall and avoid the sudden need to release more water that could cause trouble in flood management.”

SSNNL is monitoring the inflow from the “blind spot” of 20,000 square kilometres of the catchment area that can turn into a tricky proposition for the dam that is rising towards FRL at a fast pace.

Kanungo said, “We are alerted about release from the dams in MP in advance. But when calculating the total inflow, we have to also assess the rain situation in the catchment areas by analysing the IMD data and the movement of clouds…”