Odisha to host international dam safety conference next month

The best practices followed across the global for ensuring safety of aging dams will be among the several issues to be discussed at an international dam safety conference, to be hosted by Odisha next month.

Central Water Commission (CWC) Chairman Masood Husain, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday and invited him to be the chief guest at the inaugural function.

The two-day programme will begin on February 13.

"A World Bank programme on dam safety is underway in the country. This programme is based on the safety and maintenance issues of old dams and the international conference is a part of it," Husain said.

Delegates from over 20 countries will deliberate on several issues, including challenges in dam safety management, global best practices in dam safety management and governance, major rehabilitation and other risk reduction investments at the conference, he said.

Odisha's Water Resources Secretary, P K Jena said the event will be jointly organised by the state government, the CWC and the World Bank.

Meanwhile, the state has finalised plans to build another spillway at Hirakud dam for releasing more flood water, Jena said.

As the existing spillway of the dam is not sufficient for managing flood water, an additional spillway is being constructed at the right embankment, he said.

The work contract for the construction has already been awarded and the project would be completed in three years with an investment of about Rs 500 crore, CWC member (design) NK Mathur said.

"The Hirakud Dam was built in Sambalpur district in the 60s, based on the then available technology. New technologies will now be used for building the additional spillway," Jena said.

The length of the spillway would be 91 metre with five sluice gates and the width of the spillway channel would be around 300 meter.

The new spillway channel will originate from near the Gandhi Minar on the left dyke of Hirakud reservoir and meet the river Mahanadi near the Jawahar Uddyan.

Currently, there are 98 gates to release around 15 lakh cusec of flood water from the Hirakud dam. Of the 98 gates, 64 are sluice gates and the rest 34 are crest gates.