Ukai dam in Surat 76% full, water level rises in Tapi river

To prevent overflooding of the dam, the authorities on Monday night started discharging 82,000 cusecs of rainwater which subsequently reached the Tapi river by Tuesday morning.

Owing to the huge discharge of water from Ukai dam, the Tapi river is flowing in full stretch from both banks.

Ukai dam executive engineer Hemant Chaudhary said, “The dam is 76 per cent full. It is filled with rainwater, measuring up to 5701.624 million cubic meter. The inflow of rainwater from upper catchment areas in the dam is over 82000 cusecs and the same amount has been released to maintain the water level.”

“Out of total water discharged, 600 cusecs has been discharged to the left bank canal while 17,169 cusecs has been discharged through hydro power generation and 64,494 has been discharged from

nine gates which have been opened up to four feet,” Chaudhary said.

“The rainfall is still continuing in some parts of Maharashtra,” he added. On Tuesday, five districts in south Gujarat received moderate to less rainfall.

Meanwhile, sources in the irrigation department said the rainfall till August 12 had “broken all previous records in the history of Surat”.

Till August 12, a total of 50.43 inch rainfall was recorded while the earlier highest was recorded at 48.14 inch in 2019.

“There is still more than a month left for the monsoon season and if the total rainfall of the season reaches 56 inch, Surat would have received 100 percent rainfall,” said an official. Last year, the season had recorded 78 per cent rainfall, said the official.