Dams almost empty, levels may rise to 90% of capacity
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 13
Delayed monsoons over the region and a poor snow cover in the upper regions notwithstanding, major dams in the region that had almost bottomed out, are expected to fill up to 90 per cent of their storage capacity.
Cloudburst fills Pong
The unexpected cloudburst near Dharamsala on Monday brought in about three lakh cusecs of water into the Pong Dam’s reservoir.
Widespread rain in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh over the past two days has improved the storage level at Bhakra and Pong dams.
The unexpected cloudburst near Dharamsala yesterday brought in about three lakh cusecs of water into the Pong Dam’s reservoir. “Till this flood event, the storage at Pong was down to just 5
per cent of its total capacity,” Sanjay Srivastava, Chairman, Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), said.
Following the massive inflow, the storage at Pong went up to 11 per cent. This is still below normal as the average storage at this time of the year is 24 per cent. At Bhakra, the storage at present is 18 per cent as compared to the average of 34 per cent for this time of the year. It had gone down to 8 per cent during summer.
“Despite low storage during summer, we were able to meet the water requirements of our member states,” Srivastava said. Last year, the reservoir at Bhakra had filled up to 85 per cent of its total capacity, even through rains and snow had been below normal. This year, if monsoon goes as per the weather department’s forecast, the BBMB expect the dam to fill up to 90 per cent of its capacity.
