In photo: One of overflows on earlier occasion

Gandhinagar/Kevadia: The water level of Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada in Kevadia in Narmda district of central Gujarat has reached 121.35 meters -quite close to the earlier overflow mark of 121.92 meters and slowly rising but there is no hullabaloo as the dam unlike earlier years might not see any actual overflow at all.

A General Manager rank official of the project today said that though the overflow mark of the dam has been raised to 138.68 meters after the installation and closure of the 30 sluice gates, yet the gates if the need arises would be opened before it to discharge the excess water.

‘As the highest ever rise of water level during overflow in the past was 131.18 meters attained on August 25 2013, there won’t be any problem till the water level reaches that level this time around. After 131 meters a close watch will be kept and if the inflow causes a steep rise beyond the Indian Standard code of 0.3 meters per 48 hours, the gates will be opened to discharge the excess water. Or else it would left to attain the maximum level and then overflow which so far seems highly unlikely,’ he said.

Though despite many spells of very heavy rains in Gujarat so far, the catchment areas of river Narmada in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh have not yet witnessed that kind of rain. So for a overflow to happen this time around, apart from heavy rain in catchment areas, the speed of inflow should be such that the gates need not be opened.

It was estimated that the maximum average period of over-flow from the dam would likely come down to 15 to 20 days a year as compared to the earlier 50 to 60 days, a senior official of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd today said.

He also did not rule out the possibility of no overflow at all.

‘There might not be any overflow at all. Last year for instance the overflow amount was around 3 million acre feet (MAFT) and if the inflow to the dam remains on that pattern owing to an increase in the storage capacity by 3.46 MAFT (from earlier 1.27 MAFT to 4.73 MAFT – with a rise of 3.75 fold ), all the excess water wold be retained and there won’t be any overflow at all. However, at times owing to heavy inflow, we have seen 5 to 6 MAFT of water overflow and our initial study says that the overflow period would come down drastically to on an average 15 to 20 days a year that too during peak monsoon season with heavy rains in the catchment areas,’ he said.

He said that the 30 gates (7 with 60x60ft dimension and remaining 23 with 60x50ft dimension), would benefit people of Gujarat in many ways. The larger availability of water in the reservoir would mean a bigger water security in the drought years. The electricity production through the two hydro units associated with the project with total capacity of 1450 MW would also go up by 40%.

The dam overflowed for 80 days in 2013-14, 19 days in 2014-15 and 19 days in 2015-16. The overflow though causes huge wastage of water but it also attracts a large number tourists to see the splendid water fall. As the gates were closed just before the monsoon season, it would be interesting to see whether the dam overflows in the first year after it or not.