After two years, 22 gates of Sardar Sarovar dam opened

Two years after its installation, Gujarat government on Friday opened 22 of the 30 gates of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam to maintain water level at 131.18 meter.

With this, the riverbed powerhouse that has a capacity of 1,200 MW hydro power unit at the dam also started functioning after a gap of two years.

Earlier in the day, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel and government officers visited the dam site to take stock of the water situation.

Officers said that the sluice gates were opened due to huge inflow of water from Madhya Pradesh in the Narmada river catchment area. The dam has been receiving inflow of nearly 6 lakh cusec of water and on Friday the authorities started releasing 96,000 cusec.

"With heavy inflows in #SardarSarovarDam, we started River Bed Power House (1200 MW) after a gap of two years! A satisfying #moment indeed for Sardar Sarovar Team!," tweeted MD, Sardar Sarovar Namada Nigam Ltd.

The government has also issued alerts to three districts including Narmada, Bharuch and Vadodara which are likely to be flooded due to the release of the water.

These development comes in wake of heavy rainfall lashing the state's several parts including central and south Gujarat.

The rain has flooded Chhota Udepur in central Gujarat from where NDRF team on Friday evacuated 150 people.

A government release stated that 168 taluks in the state have received good rain in the past 24 hours which has led to overflow in 14 dams and reservoirs. Total monsoon rainfall in the state till Friday has been recorded at 66.41%.