Bids invited for expertise on work to raise Almatti dam height

The Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited (KBJNL) has invited tenders for offering technical expertise to install 26 additional gates in quick time to the reservoir built across River Krishna here.

This is in anticipation for the decks to be cleared for raising the dam height from the present 519.6 metres to 524.256 metres.

Iron gates that were meant for a dam height of 524.256 metres had been procured and were also installed in 2000. Subsequently, the height of the Lal Bahadur Shastri reservoir was restricted to 519.6 metres as per the order of the Supreme Court.

Hence, the gates that had been already installed had to be dismantled in 2001. The gates have been lying idle at a place near the reservoir since then.

Karnataka had been permitted to increase the height of the reservoir to 524.256 metres as per the award of the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal-2.

In 2014, a team led by Dr Kannayya Naidu, an expert in reservoir gate technology, had conducted a detailed study on how and in what timeframe can these gates be installed.

It had concluded that the task can be undertaken in 269 days. But KBJNL thinks that with technology advancing over the years, the exercise may be completed in lesser number of days.

The new technical expertise is expected to advise KBJNL on undertaking the task faster and also look whether the gates kept as standby will function as effectively and safely as the ones already in place.

The experts will also scrutinise the report of Naidu’s team.The bidder selected in the tender will also prepare the request for proposal for works to be undertaken in the event of the decks being cleared to raise the reservoir height, KBJNL chief engineer H Suresh said.