Inflow of water to the upper reservoirs caused by the unrelenting rain eventually has forced the Damodar Valley Corporation to intensify the discharges of its prime feeder dams, Panchet and Maithon, resulting in the Durgapur barrage to scale up rate of outflow today.
“After discussing with the Bengal government, we’ve increased the discharge up to 45,000 cusecs this morning, which may further be enhanced if the rains continue,” said Shashi Rakesh, member secretary, Damodar Valley River Regulation Committee. He added, “The Durgapur barrage has a capacity to handle 1.50 lakh cusecs, so, we don’t apprehend any disaster in the lower valley though rainfall in the catchment beyond the dams may be considered with a serious concern.” The discharge by the dams will take another 12 hours to hit the barrage gates, the officials said.
At 2 pm today, the barrage here maintained its discharge rate at 84,550 cusecs, which, according to Sanjoy Majumdar, executive engineer of Damodar headworks of state irrigation: “Is very likely to be escalated to 1 lakh cusecs by late evening as rainfall continued over the day.” He added, “In lower barrage catchment area, too, is keeping on with uninterrupted rainfall.”
The inflows to the upper dams – Panchet, Maithon increased from 31844 acre-feet to 93,303 acre-feet and from 25,715 acre-feet to 64,305 acre-feet respectively in the last 24 hours. Raghunathpur in Purulia, having 522 square km of weighted area feeding to Panchet dam on the Damodar East basin has recorded the highest 231 mm rainfall till 8 am today. Panchet dam area recorded 75.8 mm precipitation, Maithon recorded 216 mm rainfall that prompted escalation of inflow to the reservoir by 38,590 acre-feet. Reservoir Inflow, as the hydrology experts explained – stands for the quantity of water entering over a period of time as determined by inflated gaging tributaries that represent at least 75 percent of the quantity of water entering the dam.
Towns in the Lower Valley west of the Damodar river like Asansol, Raniganj, Andal, Durgapur also recorded 153 mm, 84 mm and 76 mm precipitation respectively.
The unrelenting rains claimed two more lives in Bankura that recorded 107 mm rainfall. The district has recorded 1123 mm rainfall since 1 June, which is 200 mm above the average. Three more persons, Jyotsna Bagdi (55) of Harialgara and Shyamsundar Singh (48) of Taldangra and Bullet Tudu (36) of Sonamukhi died after being pressed under the collapsed walls and inundation during the rains. The rain caused rivers like Shilavati, Dwarakeswar, Kansavati causing inundation in some low lying areas. The Mukutmonipur dam on Kansavati today released excess water at 20,000 cusecs rate, irrigation officials said.