Ruling out water shortage in northern states due to deficient rains in the future due to global warming, the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on Friday said a study commissioned by it has confirmed that there will be increased rainfall in the near future due to global warming.

Addressing a Press conference on BBMB’s achievements and activities during 2017-18, the board’s chairman DK Sharma said the study conducted on the rain pattern in Himachal Pradesh has ruled out water scarcity till 2080.
“In fact, as per the study the rainfall is increasing. So in the time to come there will not be any shortfall in the availability of water,” Sharma said.

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The BBMB has created a Climate Change Cell by internal re-arrangement of posts, to study the effect of changing climate on the catchments and to make projections of future scenario.

The chairman said as of today, the reservoir level of Bhakra Dam is 1546.53 feet as compared to 15.24.30 feet. “There is sufficient water in our reservoirs, so there will sufficient water available for Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan this summer,” Sharma said.

Listing the board’s achievements, the chairman said BBMB crossed the generation target of 9,360 million units fixed by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for the year 2017-18 on 27 January, 2018, one month before the year end.

The power generation from BBMB power house during 2017-18 was 10,881 million units which is 1,521 million units (16.25 per cent more) in comparison to the CEA’s target of 9,360 MUs for the period. “This splendid feat was achieved by maintaining all time high-plant availability of 99.17 per cent at BBMB Power Houses during 2017-18,” Sharma said.

Sharma said the BBMB is in the process of supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) to remote control its sites from Chandigarh which will result in the enhanced monitoring of the generating units as per the system requirement.

He said the BBMB has decided against bulk purchase of cement, petrol and diesel at project stations of BBMB which has helped in saving manpower and related overheads including wastage.

Sharma said Finite Element Analysis of Bhakra Dam is being carried out. “The on-site investigation of property of dam concrete and rock mass has already been completed and the results indicate about 30 per cent more strength than the Design values,” he said.