RAJAHMUNDRY: Polavaram project spillway, world’s largest of its kind, has been put to use thanks to the heavy flood discharge in the river Godavari.
The hydraulic gates worked to their full potential right in the first phase of the monsoon.
In a short span, the 48 massive gates were put to full potential use for the first time to release 15 lakh cusecs of water through the spill channel downstream into the Godavari.
Generally, the maintenance of gates of spillways under construction may have initial operational difficulties.
But, at Polavaram though the construction is still underway, the gates were operated successfully. The major works on the spillway are completed. The radial gates played a crucial role in releasing flood water.
The Godavari is now receiving unprecedented flood due to heavy downpour in the upstream.
In the Polavaram project, along with radial gates, 10 river sluice gates were also installed at the dead storage level. Alongside these, 20 hydraulic cylinders, two per each gate, and 10 power-pack sets for operating them have also been installed. Flood water at the spillway is first released through river sluice gates.
Then, when the reservoir reaches dead storage level, water is released downstream through these gates to provide drinking and irrigation water.
The gates can withstand a flood discharge of 50 lakh cusecs.
This is exponentially larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China, which can withstand only 41 lakh cusecs of flood water. In its hundred years of history, the highest floodwater experienced by the Godavari stands at 36 lakh cusecs.
The Polavaram project was designed considering its 100 years of history based on the kind of floods it has witnessed so far.
