Timely discharge from Ukai dam saved repeat of 2006 floods

SURAT: Miscalculation on the part of Central Water Commission (CWC) in estimating the water inflow into Ukai dam could have proved costly for the Diamond City. The CWC had projected the inflow at 1,260 million cubic metre (MCM), but what the Ukai dam received was water at the rate of 1,890 MCM. This caught the Ukai dam authorities off-guard recently, but they managed to save the situation by timely increasing the discharge rate of water to 2.5 lakh cusecs, district collectorate sources said.

If the dam authorities had delayed increasing the rate of discharge of water and then suddenly raised it to above three lakh cusecs, it would have caused floods in the low-lying areas of Surat city. This would have also led to the closing of the 35 flood gates of Surat that open into Tapi river. Slowly the different parts of the city would have been under water.

"The miscalculation happened when there was no high tide and the dam still had space to accommodate extra water. Such a mistake would prove costly if the dam is full to its capacity at 340 feet and had happened in the last days of August," a SMC official said.

"We had forecast correctly. What can we do if there is more rains in catchment areas of Ukai?" asked CWC engineer YS Vasne.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/mqsp9bf