Team News Riveting
A glacier burst in Reni village of Chamoli in Garwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand on Sunday caused flash flood fearing heavy casualties and damaging four hydro power projects.
Around 100 to 150 casualties are feared in the avalanche.
Country’s largest power producer NTPC Limited under construction Lata Tapovan hydro power project (520 MW) had been damaged partially with reported casualties. The project is NTPC’s second hydro power unit since its foray into the sector. The 520 MW run-of-the-river project is situated on river Dhauliganga.
Reports quoting officials of the rescue teams said that 10 bodies were recovered so far from the NTPC site even as search operations were on.
Privately owned Rishi Ganga power project (130 MW) located on the upper stream of Alaknanda river was the first to bore the brunt of the avalanche and was badly damaged. Officials said that over 50 people, mostly labourers, were missing from the project site.
Apart from Tapovan, Pipal Koti (4×111 MW) hydro project of state-owned THDC limited and Vishnuprayag (400 MW) of Jaypee Group were also damaged in the Nature’s fury.
The office of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister said, “Flow from Tehri dam was stopped to facilitate smooth passage of rising waters on RishiGanga and Alaknanda. All the villages and low-lying areas on the banks were vacated.
As part of rescue and preventive operations, the water flow from Bhagirathi river was also paused. The state government also asked the authorities to flash out water in Srinagar and Rishikesh dams to store and accommodate water from Alaknanda. The state government office said the Police, Army, ITPBP and the State Disaster Relief Fund were deployed in the operation.
The CM on Twitter said that no flood situation had been reported anywhere. “Currently no additional water flows are being reported & there is no flood situation anywhere. Water from the affected site has reached beyond Nandprayag and river was flowing 1 meter above normal levels. No loss has been reported from villages along Alaknanda,” he said.
