Water minister promises fixing of Warasgaon dam in Pune

Water resources minister for Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC), Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, said on Tuesday that the work on plugging leakage from the Warasgaon dam would start soon and the government would ensure fund availability.

He was speaking to reporters at Panshet dam on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the breach of the dam.

He said a meeting was held recently to discuss how the leakage of water from the dam could be prevented by using advanced technology and the water resources department had prepared a report on repairing the leak. “Work would start soon,” he added.

He was reacting to media reports on Tuesday that there was serious water leakage from Warasgaon dam and, if not corrected in time, would be a threat to the security of the dam. DNA had reported the issue in January, 2010.

Pune city gets water from four dams of the Khadakvasla system — Khadakvasla, Panshet, Warasgaon and Temghar. Warasgaon is the largest of these four, with a storage capacity of 12.82 thousand million cubic feet (TMC ft) and accounts for 46% of total capacity of the system.

Construction of Warasgaon dam began in 1976. During the construction itself, heavy leakage was observed and efforts were made to control it. However, as per the data from 1994 to 2008, there has been a constant rise in the leakage.

The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) had recommended geosynthetic or geotextile techniques to address the problem, on the lines of the technique employed at Kadamparai dam in Tamil Nadu. NGI experts had visited the city in December 2009 to assess the situation and suggest solutions.

Meanwhile, Naik-Nimbalkar, said that thanks to technological advancement, disasters like the Panshet dam burst would not recur.

Executive director of MKVDC, DR Kandi, chief engineer SM Upase, superintending engineer of Pune irrigation circle Avinash Surve, executive engineer of Khadakvasla irrigation division SN Bolbhat and former water resources secretary Madhukar Deshmukh were present on the occasion.

Naik-Nimbalkar had, as a school-going child, witnessed the floods caused by the dam breach on that fateful day 50 years ago. The minister said he could not forget the day the city was flooded.

“I reached Garware School on Karve Road at 10am and saw water levels in the adjoining Mutha river rise every minute. Wooden logs were crashing into Sambhaji Bridge. As the water level increased dangerously, a holiday was declared. While we students escaped the flood, our headmaster was stranded on the upper floor of the school,” the minister recounted.

According to him, this was the first-of-its-kind dam breach in the state. Naik-Nimbalkar said the lesson to be learnt from the disaster is that one should not try to challenge Nature. Surve said the engineers working on construction of Panshet dam had accepted the challenge of completing the dam before 1961, the end of the second five-year plan.

“They had almost completed the work. Had they got 10 more days they would have completed it. But there was unprecedented rainfall from June 25 to July 12. Perhaps that may have caused the breach,” Surve said.

Shankarrao Thakar, son of the then contractor of the dam, Patloba Thakar, said the problems of the project- and flood-affected people of 1961 are yet to be resolved.