Huge downpour in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in the upper catchment of Tenughat dam now pose a severe threat of floods in the South Bengal districts, which however has been temporarily halted after the Bengal government intervention this afternoon. The Damodar Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC) had earlier elevated the flood alert from Orange to Yellow in just six hours. The DVRRC, as a temporary measure, has beefed up flood cushions especially in Panchet to combat the upstream deluge, officials said.

A flood cushion is a temporary storage in a dam that absorbs high water flow to reduce downstream flood damage. The Principal Secretary, Irrigation, asked the Chairman, Damodar Valley Corporation to check discharge of Panchet reservoir, which already was about to scale up discharge from 65,000 Cusecs to 85,000 Cusecs at 3:30 PM today. “We’ve temporarily halted discharge till 8:00 p.m, but the discharge will cross 1 Lakh Cusecs after midnight hours,” Shashi Rakesh, Member Secretary, DVRRC told The Statesman. Mr Rakesh pleaded helplessness, explaining: “”he Tenughat dam in the Damodar upstream has already started discharge beyond 1 Lakh Cusecs and the entire release added to additional surface runoff is hitting Panchet dam.

We are told that Tenughat would further add 30,000 Cusecs more after 8:00 p.m. as that dam is already bearing at 861 feet level where the maximum danger level is 854 feet.” He added: “After midnight and by 6:00 a.m, we may have the cushion ready to accommodate the additional 30,000 cusecs, but the principal 1 lakh cusecs we cannot hold.” The Panchet dam having a catchment area of 10,961 square km has the highest storage capacity of 85,170.37 lakh cubic metres with 121.81 Sq Km maximum conservation pool. Its danger level is at 425 Feet. “Every 3 hours the level is increasing by 1 foot, which was at 418 at 5:00 p.m,” an official said. The Tenughat dam located in Petarwar block of Bokaro district came into operation in 1978 comes under the Jharkhand government and is not regulated by the DVC. The dam with its live storage capacity of 224 Million Cubic Metres was built for a single purpose of feeding water to Bokaro Steel Plant and is without a flood storage provision. “So, it’s unable to hold excessive catchment delivery for long and just pass it to the downward recipients like Panchet,” said a senior DVC official.

The Bengal government, on 17 October, 2022, at a meeting in New Delhi had demanded joint regulation of the Tenughat dam to avert flood like situations. The state had alleged that the Jharkhand government doesn’t bother to pass any information about release of large volumes of water that hits Panchet, and subsequently the lower Damodar districts like East Burdwan, Hooghly, Howrah as Panchet is compelled to go for mammoth discharge.