Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (SLHP) faces nature's wrath: Overflowing water rolls over main dam

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (SLHP), being constructed by NHPC at Gerukamukh located in the Assam-Arunachal border area in Dhemaji district, is once again under the wrath of nature. Due to heavy downpour in the past few days in the State of Arunachal Pradesh, the water level of the River Subansiri started to over flow in the catchment area of the SLHP. As a result of it, water has been rolling over the main dam of the project since Thursday creating havoc in the downstream area of the river.

The rapid surge of overflowing water has reportedly collapsed the guard wall which was constructed to protect the main dam of the project. This has caused a fear of floods among the people living in the surrounding area. Two guard walls of the project had collapsed last year too.

Notably, the water level of the river reached the highest level in the catchment area of the project on Thursday. As a consequence, the diversion tunnels of the project have lost the capacity to divert the overflowing water due to which the overflowing water began to roll down over the main dam with two feet height on Thursday. Big trees being washed away by the river turned one of the eight diversion tunnels of the project completely non-functional on Thursday. The overflowing water of the river rolled down over the dam on Friday too. It has posed massive threat to the power house of the project and affected the machineries used in the construction work. However, the SLHP authority has already recovered the affected machineries and made the non-functional diversion tunnel functional on Friday as per report from a source.

Notably, the Subansiri SLHP which was set up at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji along the Assam-Arunachal border, located in the highly seismic Zone-5, is still under construction despite massive protest programmes initiated by a number of anti-big dam activist organizations, including All Assam Students' Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP). They are apprehensive regarding the future catastrophe to be caused by the big dam project in the downstream areas of the River Subansiri covering four districts of North Assam. Recently, the Subansiri River had overflowed and submerged the powerhouse of the SLHP by breaking through the guard walls. In addition to that, the heavy rainfall has caused a landslide at Tunnel Road which is still on.

On Monday, the SLHP was visited by Union MoS for Power and Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar. During the visit, the minister reviewed the different sites of the project. The foundation stone of the SLHP's Turbine Assembly Unit 1 was also laid by Gurjar. The 160 kWp rooftop solar power plant put up at the new administration building of the SLHP was also inaugurated.

Also Read: Guard Wall Of Dam Collapses In Subansiri In Assam

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