3 members of family drown in Damodar, 2 rescued
Three members of a family from Kolkata have drowned in Damodar river near Kulti in West Burdwan district today while bathing and taking selfies. The locals have managed to save two others.
The Panchet dam in the upper eastern valley of the Damodar river further has scaled up its discharge by 7,000 cusecs today leading to the combined discharge by the upper dams to 33,000 cusecs that has left the lower valley residents panic struck, fearing further inundation.
The Durgapur Barrage maintained 35,450 cusecs released through its spillways this evening to create space for the increased outflow by the Panchet dam. The Maithon dam however maintained 6,000 cusecs discharge required to run its three hydel units.
Catchment areas of the upper Damodar dam received much more than recorded average rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday, which, according to the officials, forced the Panchet dam to vacate some additional water. Damodar Valley River Regulation Committee officials said: “The advisories by the meteorological department hinted at fresh downpour, so we wanted to create some space for the catchment runoff.” Shashi Rakesh, member secretary, DVRRC, said, “This additional 7,000 cusecs won’t harm much as the Barrage may handle this well, we suppose.”
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The gauge levels of Maithon and Panchet reservoirs were recorded at 484.25 feet and 416.94 feet at 6 pm respectively, which were 11 feet and 9 feet below the danger level, respectively, stated Nag Sudha Kumari, superintendent of hydrology at Maithon dam. The levels were up by 1.5 feet and 3 feet of the respective dams since yesterday.
Maithon recorded 85 mm rainfall followed by Raghunathpur (80 mm) and Sudamdih (69 mm). Raghunathpur having 522 square km weighted area feeds Panchet dam.
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