Tungabhadra Reservoir’s crest gate chain link broken flagging flood threat downstream

Flood threat at Tungabhadra Reservoir as chain link breaks, authorities issue alert, discharge increased to facilitate repair work.

The chain link of Crest Gate No. 19 at Tungabhadra Reservoir near Hosapete in Vijayanagara district was broken late on Saturday (August 10, 2024) flagging a flood threat downstream as around 35,000 cusecs of water is gushing through the gate.

The reservoir authorities immediately issued an alert asking the people not to venture into the river downstream as the outflow might increase up to 2 lakh cusecs at any time.

As the rains receded in the catchment area resulting in the diminished inflow into the reservoir, the dam authorities, on Saturday, reduced the discharge by around 28,000 cusecs to maintain the full reservoir level (FRL) of 1633 feet with a total storage of 105.788 tmcft.

After the chain link of Crest Gate No. 19 was broken at about 10.50 pm, all 33 crest gates were opened to reduce the pressure on the broken gate. The discharge gradually increased and reached one lakh cusecs on Sunday morning. The authorities said that the discharge was increased to reduce the water level in the reservoir so that the repair work to fix the broken chain link could be taken up.

The sources in the Irrigation Central Zone (Munirabad) of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited (KNNL) said the discharge would have to be increased to 2 lakh cusecs for the next four days to bring down the water level in the reservoir and facilitate the repair work.

Koppal MLA Raghavendra Hitnal, Assistant Commissioner Captain Mahesh Kumar Malagatti, Ram. L. Arasiddi and other senior officers camped near the reservoir to monitor the situation. Koppal District In-charge Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi also visited the reservoir early on Sunday and discussed the issue with the dam authorities.

The dam authorities said that a team of experts from Bengaluru had already left for Hosapete to take stock of the situation and fix the issue. They believed that the repair work could be taken up only after discharging 60 tmcft of water from the dam and that would be possible only by discharging 2 lakh cusecs of water for the next four days. They said that the final call would be taken only after the expert team examined the issue.