The Hindu : Front Page : Water recedes in Sutlej

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

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Front Page

Water recedes in Sutlej

By Kanwar Yogendra

UNDER THREAT: The 990 MW Dehar Power House situated on the right bank of the Sutlej at Slapper, 45 km from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, is facing danger from flash floods in the river due to an increase in the level of the artificial lake at Pareechu in Tibet. — PTI

SHIMLA, AUG. 10. Amid confusing reports of the increase in the size of artificial lake in Tibet, the water discharge at the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Project came down to 448 cumecs (cubic metres per second) from 656 cumecs yesterday.

The silt level also came down to near 6000 ppm in the evening, according to the officials at the project site at Jhakri Power House. But the project remained closed today.

`No threat to project'

Y.N Apparao, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Sutlej Jal Vikas Nigam (SJVN), told The Hindu that the project was shut due to the high alert declared by the Union Government.

The CMD, who was present at the project site, said that though there was no threat to the project and the situation was absolutely normal, the risk of running the project could not be taken. The water level in the lake on the river Pareechu is increasing day by day and if it bursts, it can be devastating.

Contradictory reports

Mr. Apparao said that reports about the quantum of water in the lake were also being verified. According to the Survey of India Institute at Dehra Dun, the lake has 114 million cubic metres of water. It is 60 metres deep and has a total area of 230 hectares.

The depth was measured by the institute on the data supplied by the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, on Friday. The latest satellite imageries of the water body supplied by the NRSA on Monday have been taken to the Survey of India Institute for confirming the exact quantum of water by the project engineers. The Chairman, SJVN, who claimed to be in constant touch with the Ministries of Home, External Affairs and Power, said that no controlled blasting was conducted even today by the Chinese authorities in the water body. The committee set up to assess the situation of the water body was not given the clearance for the same by the Chinese Government. He said the project would be closed indefinitely and ``we would wait for the water to be cleared or regulated from the top.'' He said that more than 1000 people were working in the Rs. 8500 crore mega project at a time.

High-level meet

The Crisis Management Group, at a high level meeting held here today, reviewed the arrangements in case of overflow and blasting of the lake. River Pareechu joins the Spiti at Samdoh in Himachal territory which enters the Sutlej thereafter. The water level in the Spiti is normal.

The Chief Secretary, Shamsher Singh, presiding over the meeting, expressed satisfaction over the preparedness, but stressed that there was a need for alertness.

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