A senior NHPC (National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) official said, “One of the five diversion tunnels that was in use, diversion tunnel number 1, was blocked by a landslide on Friday at around 11:30 a.m.”
“After construction was finished, the other four diversion tunnel numbers were already blocked. Consequently, there is a significant decrease in the river flow downstream. The mean sea level at the dam spillway bay is 145 meters,” the official added.
According to him, the reservoir is holding on to its current 997cum/sec river flow, and its water level is rising. The water level rose to 139 meters at 1:00 p.m.
“By the evening, it is anticipated that the water level would have reached 145 meters, at which point the river will once again flow regularly over the spillway and downstream,” the official mentioned.
The official said, “Since we work in the hills, incidents like these can arise from building activity. During the years while the building was underway, we also made advantage of the diversion tunnels.” Lakhimpur District Deputy Commissioner issued an advisory requesting the villagers residing in and around the bank of river Subansiri and adviced them to restrain themselves from activities like fishing, swimming, bathing, plying of boats etc. in the river water and not to venture in the river bed of Subansiri river during night hours under any circumstances to avert any kind of eventualities until return of normaley of the flowing water of the Subansiri river.“The villagers may also be advised to keep their cattle’s like Cow, Goat, Mithun, Pig, Dog etc. away from the river to avoid any accident/loss thereof.
Moreover, people living in the downstream and low lying areas of Subansiri river are advised to remain alert and not to panic relying on messages transmitted from un-reliable and un- official sources,” the advisory said.
However, the NHPC officer asserted that the operation of the hydroelectric power project will begin on time. The project is expected to start in March 2024.
The Subansiri Lower Hydro Electric Project, which commenced the construction work in January 2005 after obtaining forest clearance in October 2004, faced multiple bottlenecks since its inception causing huge delay in commissioning the mega power plant.
