Water level in Narmada dam slightly down, to rise again tomorrow with increase in inflow from MP

Vadodara:

The water level of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam reservoir, the lifeline of Gujarat’s water supply, which had seen a rise of over 13.4 meters in around 20 days has started declining again today owing to reduced inflow from Madhya Pradesh and increase of outflow due to supply for agricultural needs.

However, the good news is the water flow despite lessening of rain activities in MP is likely to again see a rise of 10 to 15 cm tomorrow due to increase in inflow from tomorrow afternoon caused by running of at least 8 hydel units in Onkareshwar and Indira Sagar dam based electricity plants today.

The water flow which was 124.49 in the morning has gone down to 124.48 at 6 pm. As the inflow was only 1609 cusec and outflow 10217 cuses the water level was receding further at a rate of around 1 cm per hour.

However the inflow will start rising again and will go up to 25 to 30 thousand cusec tomorrow on arrival of water released from hydel units in MP from around 12 in the noon,’ an official of the Narmada project flood control office here.

The live storage in the all important reservoir, which apart from irrigation fulfills the drinking and other household needs of around half of Gujarat’s population (3 crore), at 2029.63 million cubic meter (MCM) was 34.7% of the total live storage capacity.

Notably the new overflow mark of the dam after installation of sluice gates last year is 138.48meter. It was 121.92 m earlier on.

It has seen a rise of over 13.41 meters in last 21 days.

Two units of the canal bed hydel unit were running. The dam’s main power plant ie river bed one houses six 200 MW Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity and include a pumped-storage capability has not been started to store more and more water. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main canal ie canal bed contains five 50 MW Kaplan turbine-generators. The total installed capacity of the power facilities is 1,450 MW.

The state government has ordered release of water in all the canals for irrigation purposes to save the standing crops in the wake of delay in another spell of monsoon rain.

DeshGujarat