Heavy inflow puts paid to work on replacing TB dam’s 19th crest gate

A new crest gate, in lieu of the one that got washed away on August 10 last year, arrived at the Tungabhadra dam here on Saturday. 

The 49-tonne gate, assembled at Adavisomapura near Gadag, will replace gate number 19 that gave way due to a broken chain-link. 

But the work to instal it can begin only in November. With good rains in the catchment areas, there is water up to the bed concrete level in the reservoir, ruling out the possibility of installing the gate till the dam water level recedes. 

“The stop-log gate installed as a temporary measure can last till the end of this rainy season. So, we will start work to remove the old one and instal the new one in November,” O R K Reddy, secretary of the Tungabhadra Dam Board, told DH. 

Hardware Tools And Machinery Projects Private Limited, a Ahmedabad-based company, has won the contract to supply all the 33 gates, to replace the old ones, at the dam. 

Officials had planned to complete the work on installing the gates this year itself as they thought the dam will reach 40 tmc ft of water, the bed concrete level, in July as has been the practice every year. But this year, the water storage is 41.85 tmc ft in third week of June itself. A meeting of the irrigation consultative committee is scheduled on June 27 in Bengaluru, where a decision will be taken on releasing water to the canals. 

There will be one team to remove the 70-year-old crest gates, while another team will work to instal new ones thereafter. Removing a old gate and putting a new one in place takes three days and that way only 10 crest gates can be replaced in a month, O R K Reddy said. 

This year, water will be released from 32 gates, while protecting the 19th one, which is only a stop-log gate.