Water level of Narmada dam just around 1.5 meter below highest level, Overflow being delayed deliberately

Gandhinagar: The water level of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam reservoir, situated in Kevadiya in Narmada district of Gujarat has reached 120. 31 meter till 3 pm today (only around one and a half meter below the overflow mark of 121.92 meters) and is seeing a rise of over a centimeter per hour owing to increase in the inflow due to abundant releases of water from Indira Sagar Dam in neighboring Madhya Pradesh.

Both the hydroelectric power units of the Narmada project were on. While all the six turbines (each of 200 MW production capacity) of the river based unit were running, only four of the total five turbines (each of 50 MW) of the main canal based unit were on.

A CGM level officer of the project today informed that the overflow of the dam, which attracts huge number of tourists, was being delayed intentionally for power generation needs. ‘Though the overflow attracts tourists it also results in wastage of water. We are deliberately delaying it. By doing so and discharging the water in main canal at a rapid rate we also increase the power generation in the canal based hydro unit,’ he said.

He said that at 9 am today the water level of the reservoir was 120.22 meters while at 12 pm it was 120.27 m and at 3 pm it had reached 120.31. The inflow rate was 77700 cubic meter per second at 3 pm while the outflow was only around 60000 cusecs. The rise in the the water level was around 4 cm in 3 hours ie more than a cm per hour.

He also informed that currently the Indira sagar dam was releasing water at around 200000 cusec speed and it may increase and in that case the water level in the Saradar Sarovar dam will increase rapidly owing to surge in intake.

The official said that the two hydro units of the project were operational since June and depending upon the water level they generated electricity in different amounts. ‘The 1200 MW river based unit remains operational most of the time every year since June to November while the 250 MW canal based unit is made operational as per the requirement.

The last overflow of the dam had taken place in August last year.

Notably the dam overflowed every monsoon for an average period of 50 to 60 days. The overflow increased the number of tourists to Kevadiya to see the splendid water fall.

The height of the dam meant for supporting drinking water, irrigation and hydro power project is to be further increased. The work of raising of dam up to 121.92 mt. is completed. The Narmada Control Authority has given the permission in June 2014 to raise the height up to 138.68 m. It is to be completed before the scheduled timeframe.

DeshGujarat