JAIPUR: The Pink City, Jaipur and three other districts in Rajasthan can now breathe a sigh of relief as their lifeline, the Bisalpur dam, is now at full capacity at 315.50 m. The residents can enjoy uninterrupted water supply for the next two years.
Jaipur, Tonk, Ajmer and few other towns depend on Bisalpur for their water supply. This effectively means that 90 lakh people of these districts will have no water woes over the next couple of years. After Bisalpur reached its full capacity, the 2 gates of the dam have been opened by half a meter. On Monday, gates 9 and 10 were also opened. The Triveni River is still 2.40 meter and almost 6,000 cusec water is being released every hour. “We have opened 2 gates of the Bisalpur dam and releasing 6,000 cusec water downstream,” said Assistant Engineer PHED, Manish Bansal.
Jaipur and four other districts have been given 7,000 lakh litres of water daily but 8,000 litres can be given if water is available.
The kharif crops are also expected to cross the target after the rains. The state receives 530 mm of rain in the entire season and till Sunday it had already received 543.74 mm of rain. By August 18, the state should have received 371.28 mm of rain but it has received 46% more rainfall. The Agriculture Department has set a target to harvest kharif crops in 16,375 lakh hectare this year, while so far sowing has been done in 14,216.2 lakh hectare, which is about 90% of the target.
Due to the heavy rains in the last 25 days, it is recorded more than normal in 21 districts out of 33; only 9 districts have received normal rains. Only 3 districts Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and Jaisalmer received 26 to 36 per cent less rainfall than normal. Division-wise maximum rainfall has been recorded in Ajmer, Kota and Udaipur.