Survey done for proposed additional spillway at Hirakud dam

A two-member team of Geological Survey of India (GSI) has conducted a survey for construction of proposed additional spillway at the left dyke of the Hirakud Dam Project in Odisha, an official said today.
The team members -- Director of GSI, Jayadeep Mukharjee and scientist of GSI, Ramesh Chandra Munda -- visited the site on Tuesday, Superintending engineer of the Hirakud Dam Project, Harmohan Pradhan said.
They would prepare the final report on the additional spillway and submit it to the project's Chief Engineer. Later, it would be submitted to the Central Water Commission (CWC), he said.
An amount of Rs 350 crore has already been approved by the World Bank for the construction of additional spillway at Hirakud Dam under the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP), he said, adding that land acquisition status for the additional spillway was also reviewed recently.

Around 311 acres of land, including 157 acres of private tracts, is required to be acquired for construction of the spillway, Executive Engineer of the Hirakud Dam Project, Chinmaya Rout said.
The additional spillway was earlier proposed to be constructed at Gandhi hillock, but GSI did not find the rock beneath the soil suitable for the construction there. Subsequently, a new site on the left dyke was identified for the construction of the spillway.
Construction of additional spillway is planned to increase the flood water discharge capacity of Hirakud Dam to around 24 lakh cusec, officials said.
At present, there are 98 gates to release the flood water from the Hirakud dam. Of the total, 64 are sluice gates and 34 are crest gates. Around 15 lakh cusec water is released through the 98 gates at a time. The additional spillway was proposed after CWC revised flood water release capacity of all major dams.