M A I N   N E W S

Expect heavier rain in coming days
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12
The Indian Meteorological Bureau’s (IMB) forecast of heavy rain in the region after August 18 today prompted Punjab government to release Rs 6.49 crore for preventive flood-control measures even as Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) sought to reassure people and said there was nothing to panic about the rising level of water in the Bhakra dam.

But while the “average inflow into the dam during the last 40 years has been 60,000 cusecs daily during this period, the average inflow during the last twelve days has been 82,000 cusecs per day,” conceded the BBMB Member (Irrigation).

The water level in the dam on Thursday stood at 1651 feet. The water-level is rising at the rate of two feet per day and it would take 10 to 15 more days for the level to reach 1,670 feet, when a partial release of water from the dam may become necessary. The level to which the BBMB is ready to fill up the dam by September 20 is 1,680 feet, beyond which there will be risk of the dam getting damaged, said BBMB chairman AB Aggarwal.

Some of the villages along the Sutlej on the Nangal- Ropar belt could then get flooded as the river does not have any embankments along this stretch. But Aggarwal asserted that the release of water from the spillway was not a cause for panic as it was a regular feature to regulate inflows and outflows.

The BBMB chairman said Punjab would get a 24-hour warning before the release of any water from the dam.