The operational capability of the spillway, which is equipped with installations that can withstand 50 lakh cusecs of inflow, has proved to be a success as it is put to use to tackle the flash floods in the Godavari at the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh.
According to the Godavari river flood history, an inflow of 15 lakh cusecs has never been reported downstream of Bhadrachalam in the month of July since the 1920s.
“The 48 hydraulic gates of the spillway have been put in operation to tackle the ongoing floods in the Godavari. This is the first flood in which the entire spillway is commissioned and tested successfully by discharging 15 lakh cusecs of flood water without reporting any technical glitch,” Chief General Manager (MEIL-Polavaram project) M. Muddukrishna told The Hindu.
MEIL is the construction agency of the Polavaram project.
Post the floods in 2011, the remaining six of the 48 hydraulic gates have been installed at the spillway. At the spillway, the flood water is released into the river sluice gates, through which it passes downstream to be diverted to the canals for various purposes.
“The hydraulic gates installed at the spillway are capable of withstanding a maximum of 50 lakh cusecs of flood water. Its capacity is more than Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in China, the capacity of which is 41 cusecs,” claimed Mr. Muddukrishna.
Since the early 1900, the highest inflow of Godavari flood recorded at the Polavaram project site was 36 lakh cusecs.
On the other hand, the Water Resource Department authorities have prepared to discharge the entire flood water from the Polavaram irrigation project without preferring to store further.
By early July, the Polavaram project storage capacity was 40 tmc ft.
