SAMBALPUR: Uncertainty looms over the proposed additional spillway at the left dyke of Hirakud Dam as Tata Projects Limited and AGE Group, Turkey, which were jointly carrying out the work, backed out of the project recently.
Work on the additional spillway was started in January last year. Tata Projects and AGE Group had undertaken the excavation work and were paid Rs 12 crore of the estimated project cost of Rs 369.53 crore.
The firms alleged delay in handover of land by Government and withdrew from the project. Executive Engineer of the Spillway Division Himansu Mishra however, refuted the charge and said the firms had not completed the work over the area, which had been handed over to them.
The Government will take a decision on cancelling the contract with the firms soon, he said.
The additional spillway at Hirakud Dam Project was proposed after the Central Water Commission (CWC) recommended to enhance the flood water discharge capacity of all the major dams to 1.5 times of their current capacity.
The length of the additional spillway will be 91 metre and it will have five sluice gates. The width of the channel will be 300 metre while the length will be 1.9 km.
The spillway channel will originate from near Gandhi Minar on the left dyke of Hirakud Dam Project and meet with Mahanadi river near Jawahar Udyan. It is a World Bank-funded project.
Presently, there are 98 gates, including 64 sluice gates and 34 crest gates, to discharge the floodwater at the Hirakud Dam.
The existing capacity to discharge the floodwater from the 98 gates is 15 lakh cusec.
However, it has been proposed to increase the flood water discharge capacity of the Hirakud Dam to 18 lakh cusec after completion of the additional spillway project.