Post News Network
Sambalpur, Dec 7: A three-member Central team visited Hirakud dam here Sunday and conducted an examination of some underwater cracks that had formed on the structure.
The team led by Alex Varghese, head of the geophysics department of the Central Soil and Material Research Station (CSMRS) that functions under the Union Water Resources department, began surveying the cracks by releasing a remote operated vehicle (ROV) into the reservoir.
The vehicle fitted with a scanner will identify and take pictures of the cracks that are more than five millimetres across. The survey will continue for a month for which over Rs 20 lakh has been sanctioned from the DRIP scheme. The cracks identified on the dam will be repaired later, sources said.
Heavy siltation has posed a serious threat to the dam and has resulted in a decrease in the dam’s water retaining capacity. According to latest estimates, silt has accumulated up to a height of 585 ft in the reservoir – approximately half of the dam’s dead storage (dead or inactive storage refers to water in a reservoir that cannot be drained by gravity through a dam’s outlet works, spillway or power plant intake and can only be pumped out).
Even 16 per cent of the reservoir’s live storage (the portion of the reservoir that can be used for power production, flood control, navigation and downstream releases) is filled with silt, according to findings.
Years back, divers from the Navy and organisations from Mumbai and Holland had visited the reservoir to conduct a survey of the cracks following which the irrigation department had undertaken repair works from 1975-1983.
Other agencies have also conducted surveys of the cracks following which fissures of over 14 m were repaired. Dam sources however, claimed that large fissures of 13-15 metres have formed in the reservoir, requiring urgent repairs.