Written by: Express News Service
3 min readVadodaraAug 3, 2013 02:58 AM IST
First published on: Aug 3, 2013 at 02:58 AM IST
The water level in the Sardar Sarovar dam reached a record level on Friday,touching 129.47 metres,mainly on account of heavy rains in the catchment areas. This is seven metres above the height of the dam,which is 121.92 metres,and the highest-ever level achieved by the dam. Officials of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) said that the water level was expected to go up further and touch 129.80 metres due to heavy inflow of water into the dam. The dam was receiving 13 lakh cubic feet per second (cusec) water while around 10 lakh cusec was being released into the river.
“The water level at the dam went up to 129.47 metres from 124.95 metres a day ago due to heavy inflow of water into the dam. The level is expected to go up further. It is already at a record height,” an official said.
The dam had in the past achieved the highest level at 129.20 metre on September 2,2012,according to data available with the SSNNL showed. The height achieved by the dam on Friday has broken all previous records,but the water was overflowing as there were no sluice gates to hold it back,officials said. The review committee of the Narmada Control Authority is yet to give a nod to the proposal of the state government to raise the height of the dam to 138.68 metres,they said.
The catchment areas of dams in Madhya Pradesh received heavy rainfall. Areas surrounding Tawa dam on Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh’s Hoshangabad district received 270 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. Heavy rainfall in areas surrounding Omkareshwar dam in MP led dam authorities in the neighbouring state to release 6.7 lakh cusec of water,officials said.
Due to heavy inflow of water into the dam and release of water into the river,the level of water in Narmada river increased sharply,creating flood-like situation in surrounding areas. Narmada district authorities sounded warning for over 50 villages surrounding the dam. Water pushed into residential colonies of Tilakwada in Narmada.
“Eighty-five people have been shifted to a government school in Sisodhra village in Nandod taluka in Narmada district,” Narmada district collector Rakesh Shankar said. “Our teams are monitoring the situation in the fields. Vasan and Rangan villages in Tilakwada taluka have been kept on stand-by. Village sarpanchs,mamlatdars have been informed of the prevailing situation,” Shankar said.
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