Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) announced today that water is being released from the Ajwa and Pratappura reservoirs into the Vishwamitri River, which flows through the city.

The VMC, via a social media post at around 7:30 AM today, said, “The water level of the Vishwamitri River is 15 feet, and the gates of the Ajwa and Pratappura dams have been opened. However, this will not bring any major change to the water level of the Vishwamitri River, so the public need not panic.”

વિશ્વામિત્રી નદીનું સ્તર હાલમાં ૧૫ ફૂટ છે.
હવે આજવા અને પ્રતાપપુરા ડેમના દરવાજા ખોલવામાં આવ્યા છે.
જેનાથી વિશ્વામિત્રી નદીની સપાટીમાં વધુ ફેર પડશે નહિ.
લોકોને ગભરાવાની જરૂર નથી.
તારીખ: ૦૨/૧૦/૨૦૨૪ સમય: સવારે ૦૭:૩૦ વાગ્યે pic.twitter.com/PH03HpLawM

— VMC VADODARA (@VMCVadodara) October 2, 2024

It is noteworthy that the water releases from the Ajwa and Pratappura dams were stopped on the night of September 29th after the water level of the Vishwamitri River rose to 23 feet following 3.4 inches of rainfall in just 4 hours that day. The next day, on the 30th, the water level rose as high as 25.03 feet but then began to decrease due to the absence of fresh rainfall. The water level remained steady around 25 feet since the morning of September 30 before starting to decline after 2 PM. The danger level is 26 feet, while the flood level is 30 feet. However, thanks to the absence of fresh rainfall and the continued closure of the Ajwa and Pratappura dams, the level began to decrease.

Now that the water level of the Vishwamitri has dropped well below the danger mark, the water releases have begun from Ajwa Lake. As of around 1 PM today, the water level of the Ajwa dam is at 213.07 feet, and the Pratappura dam is at 227.12 feet, while the Vishwamitri River, at the same time, is flowing at a level of 12.86 feet at Kalaghoda Bridge, where the water level of the river is measured through sensors.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Dilip Kumar Rana, the Vadodara Municipal Commissioner, said, “Due to the rain that fell 36 hours ago, amounting to around 5 inches, and prior to that daily rainfall of 1-2 inches, the water level of the Vishwamitri was steadily rising. This is because the water outlet in the river is very low compared to the water inlet, so even when the dams were closed, the water level of the Vishwamitri River kept rising. The rule level of the dam is 212.50 feet, yet we kept the dam filling even over 213 feet, and water was not discharged. However, the flow of natural water was such that the river reached around 25 feet. If further rainfall had occurred, it would have been an unimaginable situation, so we were alerting people. We were requesting people to evacuate low-lying areas and also evacuated many residents. Meanwhile, as there has been no rain in the last 36 hours and no water was discharged from the dam, the water level of the Vishwamitri is continuously decreasing, and it has gone below the alert level of 22 feet. Since there has been no rain in the city as well as upstream areas, we will now release water from Ajwa, which will not bother anyone. The water will be released so that if similar rainfall occurs again, we will have the capacity to accommodate the water. After doing all these calculations, we are operating the dam.” DeshGujarat