Teesta Urja, the 2d largest run-of-the-river hydro strength challenge in India, suffered large injury due to flood induced through the breach in Lhonak lake in north-west Sikkim on the intervening night time of Tuesday and Wednesday.
Teesta Urja, the 2nd largest run-of-the-river hydro electricity task in India, suffered big harm due to flood prompted through the breach in Lhonak lake in north-west Sikkim on the intervening night time of Tuesday and Wednesday.
The 1,200 MW electricity venture on Teesta river, one of the most dammed rivers in the country, is placed between Chungthang and Mangan in Mangan district in North Sikkim and is the largest of 9 working hydro tasks on the river in Sikkim. Work on 15 dams is going on and some other 28 are proposed over the river to tap its hydel ability of about 4,200 MW.
Sunil Saraogi, the govt chairman of Sikkim Urja Limited (formerly Teesta Urja Limited) stated such was once the pressure of the water than the dam at Chungthang used to be washed away in simply ten minutes.
“At 11.58 pm on Tuesday we acquired facts from ITBP (Indian Tiber Border Police) about the flash flood. Immediately our group rushed to open the gates. Before they ought to open the gates, the flood hit them . There have been 12 to thirteen humans in the group and they one way or the other saved themselves by way of going for walks to the different facet of the dam. They had been evacuated through ITBP by using two pm on Wednesday,” he said.
He delivered that the 200-meter-long bridge connecting the electricity residence to the dam used to be additionally washed away. “The whole energy house is submerged underneath water and it is too early to investigate the damage,” he said, including that the price of rebuilding the mission would run into heaps of crores of rupees.
Visuals from the task web page exhibit massive parts of the dam’s wall lacking .
According to the Sikkim catastrophe administration authority, the give way of the Chungthang dam resulted in surprising surge of 15-20 toes in water stage in downstream areas.
The energy mission was once commissioned in February 2017 and it was once solely in 2022 that it began making profit, producing greater electricity than the capacity, due to the fact of heavy drift of water. “We have been strolling at 120% of ability utilization,” stated Saraogi. Sikkim authorities had 60.08% share in the project.
Local activists have for lengthy warned of the unfavorable environmental implications of the run-of-the-river initiatives on the 414 km lengthy Teesta river that originates from Punhunri Mountain in north Sikkim.
Run of the river tasks are these which gives for a facility that channels float of water from the river via a canal or penstock to spin a turbine to generate electricity. Run of the river initiatives does now not assist giant irrigation facilities.