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DAM-L LS: 245 Gujarat Dams damaged in Earthquake (fwd)
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Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 17:30:45 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: LS: 245 Gujarat Dams damaged in Earthquake
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The Times of India, Ahmedabad, March 6, 2001
Panels to monitor repair work on
quake-hit dams
By Our Special Correspondent
GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government has agreed
to the World Bank condition of setting up two expert
panels for "repairing, reconstructing and restoring" 245
small and medium dams of Saurashtra and Kutch
damaged in the January 26 earthquake at a cost of Rs
418 crore ($90 million).
The deal was finalised at a top-level meeting state
finance department officials had with a World Bank team
in New Delhi on Saturday evening.
"The negotiations took place for a $400-million loan
which it has already said it would give", a senior
bureaucrat said. "The World Bank is now bothered
about putting up scores of conditionalities to ensure that
the loan amount it is planning to give is utilised properly,
in accordance with the actual requirements."
Setting up two dam safety panels, which would also
monitor the work on the dams hit by the quake, is only
one of the conditionalities. Others would be known in
due course.
The World Bank is being requested to give as much soft
loan as possible with a liberal package.
"We would know the exact amount of how much of the
$400 million would be soft loan after the World Bank
board meeting in mid-March," state economic affairs
secretary Sudhir Mankad, the main negotiator, said.
"We would know the exact conditionalities also later on",
he added, admitting, "Bank officials have not indicated
any debt repayment moratorium period, already fixed by
the Asian Development Bank for seven years."
The state government set up an experts committee led by
Dr YK Murthy, former chairman of the Central Water
Commission, five days ago with World Bank
consultations to carry out survey of all the dams of the
quake-hit areas.
The committee, which includes specialists like Dr Bharat
Singh, Dr GN Tandon, Dr AS Arya would now be split
into two, would now be split into two groups separately
monitoring Kutch and Saurashtra banks. Murthy has
been consultant to 80 per cent of the dams built in India,
including the Narmada.
According to preliminary investigations by the
committee, of the 245 dams hit, 185 are in Kutch and 60
in Saurashtra. "Mainly the earthen dams built in the
1960s and 1970s and those that have not been
constructed as per quake specifications have been hit",
the bureaucrat pointed out. "The dams built after 1991
took into account revised standards, based on the
principle that these should be three times stronger than
ordinarily supposed to be. The number of people that
might die if a dam bursts would be very high."
The main dams that have been particularly badly hit in
western Kutch are: Kaswati, right at the epicentre,
Tappar, Rudramata, Suvi, Fategadh and Shivlekha. The
dams badly hit in northern Saurashtra are Machchu-2,
Und, Limdi-Bhogavo and Sosia. "The experts committee
has found that dams in the radius of 125 km of the
epicentre have been particularly badly hit. There have
been significant longitudinal and transverse cracks and
settlement of the earthworks as also slippage", the
bureaucrat said.
The Gujarat government "Memorandum" to the
Government of India submitted in mid-February says
that Kutch's "five medium and 14 minor irrigation dams
are severely damaged. As for Saurashtra, nine medium
dams have been "severely damaged". It stresses, all
these would need to be repaired before June 2001, i.e.
onset of monsoon.
The "memorandum" significantly says, "due to the quake,
wide gaps are likely to be created between
concrete/masonry and the earthen dam. As water was
fortunately not present in these dams, the earthen dam
was not washed away. There is an urgent need to
investigate the critical joints of all these dams. Effective
measures should be taken to regulate the flow of water
into reservoirs to avert any unforeseen destruction of the
dams."
The "Memorandum" also does not rule out the
"possibility of cracks in the basement of the reservoirs."
It warns, "As this will result in the total seepage of stored
water underground, there is a need to investigate and
provide treatment to the basement of the reservoirs." The
stress is also on the need to have fresh seismographic
equipment at 16 different places under the Narmada
water resources and water supply department, including
at Ukai, Vadodara, Sanjali, Madhuban and Dharoi.
----------------------------------------------
Story 2:
69 dams in the region damaged
in earthquake
The Times of India News Service
RAJKOT: Sixty-nine dams have been damaged in the
quake in the Saurashtra region. The total damage has
been placed at Rs 70 crore by officials.
Sources in the irrigation department said that while some
dams had developed cracks, parapet walls of other
dams had been damaged while others needed a fresh
coast of plaster.
The Rajkot irrigation circle controls 28 dams and the
damages have been placed at around Rs 36 crore. This
includes the Nyari-2 site where the top portion of the
dam, the canal lining and the parapet walls have been
damaged. The wireless cabin at the dam site has also
been damaged.
Dams in Jamnagar and Surendranagar, which also fall
under the Rajkot circle, have also been damaged. These
include damages of Rs 239 lakh for earthen works, Rs
69 lakh for canal works and Rs 59 lakh for buildings and
other items.
Damages at dams like Bhadar have been put at Rs 14
lakh, Machhu-1 Rs 18 lakh, Machhu-2 Rs 33 lakh,
Und-1 Rs 375 lakh and Brahmni dam Rs 12 lakh.
Forty-one minor irrigation dams have also suffered
considerable damages.
Technical engineers and experts have called for caution
and said that these damages have to be rectified at the
earliest.
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