Centre likely to give Rs 60-cr flood assistance to Uttarakhand

New Delhi: A day after Uttarakhand chief minister raised alarm bells over overflowing Tehri reservoir, the Union Cabinet secretary on Monday took stock of the situation during a high level meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee.

The committee is learnt to have asked concerned central government agencies to provide all possible help to the Uttarakhand administration to tackle the flood situation in the flood-affected region. Sources said that government is likely to provide about Rs 60 crore assistance to the state for immediate relief works in the flood affected regions.

While there was no threat to the Tehri dam, which has the capacity to discharge about 13,200 cumec (cibic meter per second), the situation alarmed Uttarakhand authorities in the wake of reservoir level touching 830.8 metres as against the full reservoir level of 830 metres resulting into water spilling downstream through automatic spillway. The levels rose because of th controlled discharge of water to protect any damages to downstream 400 mw Koteshwar hydel project.

Apart from the flooding downstream, another reason for alarm was the threat to under construction Koteshwar hydel project downstream because of the uncontrolled water flowing downstream through spillway after the water level crossed 830-m mark.

Before the overflowing, the water discharge from the Tehri dam was controlled to the tune of 800-900 cumecs to avoid any damage to Koteshwar project. This additional flow through the spillway posed challenge as higher flows could delay the project beyond the planned commissioning of project which is currently slated for within next six months.

While Tehri was undertaking controlled discharge, the situation was compounded by the fact that Tehri reservoir was witnessing about 2,000 cumec inflow from upstream. However, the meeting today was informed that the situation has abated in the wake of declining trend in the inflow to the Tehri reservoir, which had dropped from 1,400 cumecs inflow in the Monday morning to about 1,100 cumecs by the afternoon.

In the wake of declining inflow into the Tehri reservoir, the committee on Monday asked the concerned authroties to disharge the water from the reservoir in such a way to bring the water levels below the full reservoir level to allow controlled discharge to ensure safety of under construction Koteshwar hydel project.

Soruce:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Centre-likely-to-give-Rs-60-cr-flood-assistance-to-Uttarakhand/684760/