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Two of the 54 gates of the Madhopur barrage, located downstream of the Ranjit Sagar Dam on the Ravi river, gave way after heavy rains. The barrage, first built in the 19th century and rebuilt in 1959 near Pathankot, regulates the Ravi’s flow.
With the Ranjit Sagar Dam filled to the brim, water began outflowing at up to 2.21 lakh cusecs on Tuesday (August 26), continuing till Wednesday. The floodgates of the Madhopur barrage were opened, but two collapsed under pressure.
Officials have not given the exact cause of the breach, but sources say that a delay in opening the gate could have triggered it. Massive discharge from the Ravi has already inundated parts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur.
Barrages are one of the components of a headworks system which diverts river water to canals for irrigation, drinking, and industry. Punjab’s major headworks are Nangal, Ropar, Hussainiwala (at Ferozepur) and Harike on the Sutlej and Beas, and Madhopur on the Ravi.
Unlike a dam, which stores massive volumes of water in a reservoir, barrages are low structures with sluice gates to regulate and divert water. Rather than storing water, they regulate its flow, acting more like a tap.
While the collapse/failure of a dam is likely to be much more catastrophic than that of a barrage gate, the latter can also cause significant damage. When gates break or jam, water gushes out uncontrolled.
As a result, homes, shops, farmland, and public buildings are flooded, road and canal infrastructure damaged, and thousands of people displaced. Farmers suffer from crop and livestock losses which are especially devastating just before the harvest.
Barrage gates do not fail overnight. Rather, the failure is the product of aging, poor upkeep, and stresses from floods.
“There is a full schedule of year-round maintenance. Gates need regular greasing, oiling, and rust-prevention. If unused, they corrode and jam, as seen in Delhi when gates on the Yamuna barrage failed (in 2023),” said Gulab Singh, a former member of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).
How the gates are opened during high-stress situations also matters. “Sudden cloudbursts in the catchment area increase flow beyond design limits. If the gates aren’t opened gradually, pressure builds up,” he said.
Unlike dams, which might fail due to storage pressure (the reservoir exceeding the holding capacity of the dam), barrage failures are usually due to poor upkeep and delayed operation.
At Madhopur, gates were opened only after huge releases of water from the Ranjit Sagar Dam located some 20 km upstream. On Tuesday, 2.21 lakh cusecs was flowing; the collapse occurred when flow was over 1.60 lakh cusecs. By Friday, the flow had reduced to 37,100 cusecs.
BBMB experts call it a man-made disaster due to a delay in opening the gates. “Human error — poor coordination between irrigation and flood-control departments — worsens crises,” said one official. “Lack of maintenance causes motor, pulley, or hydraulic failures,” the official added.
Another official said: “Debris jams gates, extreme rainfall pushes beyond design assumptions, and sometimes water’s force destroys even well-designed structures. At such sites, staff must remain alert.”
Experts say the gates were not used regularly and lacked proper upkeep.
Like the Hussainiwala Headworks in Ferozepur — built in 1922 and hardly used for a long time — Punjab’s old barrages suffer rusting, siltation, cracked gates, and damaged crests. At Hussainiwala in 2023, gate 26’s crest was completely damaged, others cracked, worsened by neglect and floods. The pond is silted and clogged with water hyacinth, offering little storage.
Since gates are usually operated only during floods, they remain shut most of the year.
At Madhopur, repairs can only begin once water recedes.
