SAMBALPUR: The Water Resources department will execute the work on the proposed additional spillway of Hirakud dam, a project which has been plagued by delay.
The additional spillway was proposed after the Central Water Commission (CWC) gave recommendation to enhance floodwater discharge capacity of all major dams.
The state government selected Tata Projects Limited and AGE Group, Turkey to carry out work on the additional spillway at an estimated cost of Rs 369.53 crore. Work started in January 2019 but the two firms backed out of the project in February 2020 alleging delay in handing over of land for the project by the government.
Subsequently, a fresh tender was floated and the project estimate was revised for the second time. The Odisha Construction Corporation (OCC) Limited was selected to execute the project. However, no visible progress took place following which the Water Resources department decided to take over the project work.
Chief engineer of Upper Mahanadi Basin Ananda Chandra Sahu said though OCC was selected to execute the project, the plan was dropped due to some official issues. It has now been decided that the additional spillway project work will be executed by the Water Resources department under the direct supervision of CWC. Work on the project will begin soon.
Sources said currently, the estimated budget of the project is Rs 786.44 crore. As per the project proposal, length of the additional spillway will be 91 metre and it will have five sluice gates. The channel’s width will be 300 metre and length 1.9 km. The spillway channel will originate from near Gandhi Minar on the left dyke of the dam and meet Mahanadi river near Jawahar Udyan.
Currently, there are 98 gates in Hirakud dam to release floodwater. Around 15 lakh cusec water is released through all the 98 gates at a time. After the construction of the additional spillway, which is a World Bank-funded project, the water discharge capacity of Hirakud dam will increase to 18 lakh cusec from 15 lakh cusec.