A prominent crack has surfaced on the pier of Chandil dam, prompting the water resources department to approach the Dam Safety Review Panel (DSRP) of Odisha, following orders from the Central Water Commission, New Delhi.
A team of the safety review panel from Bhubaneswar is likely to inspect Chandil dam in a day or two to find out the reasons behind the cracks and suggest a review.
Chief engineer Chandil dam Veerendra Kumar Ram said the crack was visibly prominent and needed immediate attention.
“The crack has developed on the pier over gate 1. We approached the Central Water Commission and made a presentation before the panel on the crack.”
“There may be more cracks that may not be visible. After our presentation, the panel instructed us to approach the DSRP (safety review panel) in Odisha for sending over a technical team to Chandil to inspect the dam,” Ram told The Telegraph.
Located at Chandil in Seraikela-Kharsawan, the sprawling dam set up in 1983 irrigates vast parts of East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand beside parts of neighbouring Bengal and Odisha. The dam with a radius of 310km and water level of 179 metres from the sea level also meets drinking water and industrial needs of Jamshedpur.
Executive engineer (dam) Sanjiv Kumar, who is monitoring the crack, said the dam had 13 gates.
“The crack is on the pier over gate 1 and we don’t know how deep it is, which makes the dam vulnerable. We neither have the equipment to examine the crack nor does Jharkhand have a Dam Safety Review Panel like Odisha. This why the Central Water Commission asked us to approach Odisha for sending a team of experts to inspect the dam,” Kumar said.
