Nearer Delhi, a model to clear muddy Baglihar

Indian officials are hoping that the model will help Lafitte see the project in clearer light, beyond technical drawings, diagrams and numbers. The model has been developed by Irrigation Research Institute (IRI), a skill which is unique to the Institute. Made on a scale of 1:60, it is spread over nearly 200 metres replicating the design of the dam.

When actual water flows through the model, experts are able to arrive at conclusions based on water behavior through the dam’s sluices, intake points, channels and reservoirs. This technique has been used to resolve design bottlenecks for a number of hydro-electric projects in India.

The Government is leaving no stone unturned in putting across its point of view. After all, the previous experience was a bitter one: the Salal hydro-electric project on the Chenab river, just a few kilometres downstream from the proposed Baglihar, was altered to keep Pakistan satisfied. Today, the project is redundant, prematurely, with its intake points silted, reducing power generation capacity to next to nothing.

India does not want Baglihar to be a repeat of the Salal. In Baglihar, the dispute centres on the gated spillways, key to the project as far as India is concerned but a cause for major worry in Pakistan. Usually, in a run-of-the-river project, gated spillways are not constructed. Pakistan’s argument is that the gates amount to storing water, thereby depriving the country of its share of

Chenab water as well as leaving it open to the risk of flooding.

The model near Roorkee will show the importance of these eight spillways—not so much for storing water behind the 808 m walls, but to actually flush out the silt.

The Chenab river with its velocity is simulated with actual water and is made to flow through the model. The effort is to show how much collects behind the gated spillways, the percentage of silt and the need to release excess water during monsoons. Those running the model have clarified that minimal water is being collected behind the gates and there is a need for sluice gates to prevent quick silting.

‘‘While at the actual site in J&K, there is only half-baked construction, rubble and concrete, this is a neat package, based on certain scales where the project can be seen at work,’’ said Shiv Dutt, Chief Engineer, IRI.

A team from Pakistan had spent three days with the model in July to study it from every possible angle. They had a long list of queries, which were forwarded to the IRI to clarify.

For this particular visit, the model that has been in existence for five years has been freshly painted, white-washed and labeled. Flood lights are being installed so that the team can see it run round the clock. Most important, the UP state government has been directed to ensure an uninterrupted flow in the Ganga canal, the waters of which will run the model.