Madhopur (Pathankot): The 19th-century Madhopur barrage that regulates the flow of Ravi, has seen heavy rains before. This year, it was worse.
The unprecedented flood led the authorities at the Ranjit Sagar dam, located upstream of Madhopur barrage, to release 2.2 lakh cusecs of water. When this huge volume of water reached Madhopur barrage, the authorities there were able to manually open just about half of the 54 barrage gates. The remaining failed to open. Unable to withstand the pressure, three of Madhopur barrage gates collapsed 27 August.
This aggravated the flooding and caused widespread damage to villages and farmland on both sides of the international border—Punjab and Pakistan.
But dam safety experts and officials of National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) told ThePrint the heavy rains could have been a trigger but the collapse of Madhopur barrage gates was waiting to happen.
Such structures, dam safety experts said, do not fail overnight. The Madhopur barrage is one of India’s oldest barrages, built during the British era for irrigation purposes. It diverts water through the Upper Bari Doab Canal to irrigate farmlands across Punjab’s Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Pathankot and Tarn Taran districts.
“It is unusual for barrage gates to collapse like the way it did at Madhopur unless they have become structurally weak. The barrage has hardly seen any maintenance over the years. When was the last time a major maintenance activity was carried out?” a senior NDSA official, who did not want to be named, told ThePrint.
The official said that under the NDSA Act, dam owners of structures like the Madhopur barrage are mandated to conduct regular maintenance according to dam safety guidelines and submit their report to the State Dam Safety Authority before every monsoon.
“Please find out if it was done. If it was done, how did the barrage gates get stuck? Fifty percent of the barrage gates not opening in itself is an example of extremely poor upkeep,” the official said.
A senior Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) official, said that ideally the barrage gates should have been opened before monsoon for testing to see if they are functioning properly. The gates should be greased properly.
“None of this seems to have happened. Lack of proper maintenance can result in the gates getting rusted and becoming structurally weak over a period of time,” the BBMB official added.
The BBMB operates and maintains the Bhakra-Nangal dam, the Beas-Satluj Link project and the Pong dam.
Punjab irrigation department officials, however, said that it was an unprecedented situation this year. The Madhopur barrage, one of the officials said, has never received such a large volume of water before. On 27 August, 2.21 lakh cusecs was released from the Ranjit Sagar dam.
“The Madhopur barrage did not receive this much water even during the1988 floods. The situation was beyond manageable,” said another senior Punjab irrigation department official, who was monitoring the situation last Sunday at the barrage.
Dam safety experts also said that it’s not just Madhopur barrage. Most of the barrages are very old in Punjab and upkeep is very poor as they are under the irrigation department, he added.
“They are not maintained regularly, and probably the Madhopur collapse was due to the lack of maintenance as its base structure is centuries old,” Virender Prasad Sharma, a dam expert empanelled by the Central Water Commission (CWC), told ThePrint.
Sharma said the standard drill is to carry out maintenance work twice a year—pre-monsoon and post-monsoon.
The official of Punjab irrigation department, quoted earlier, said that they did not have a specific budget allocation for the upkeep of the barrage.
For the financial year 2025-26, the Punjab government allocated Rs 3,235 crore for irrigation and flood control, which is 2.2 percent of its expenditure. However, it is lower than the average allocation for irrigation by states in 2024-23, which is 3.4 percent of their expenditure.
‘Pvt firm had given a thumbs up’
Months before the collapse of the barrage gates, the Punjab government hired a private firm, Level9 Biz, to assess the strength of the structure.
The company told the government that the gates were in perfect condition and would not suffer any damage even if 6.52 lakh cusecs of water were released.
“But months after the company submitted its report, the gates have collapsed. We have issued a notice to the company. They have not responded yet. Our officials are investigating the matter and action is being initiated,” Punjab water resource minister Barinder Goyal told ThePrint.
The second irrigation department official, who did not want to be named, said that heavy silt and uprooted trees came with the water, jamming the barrage gates. “Water was overflowing from the barrage structure.”
The irrigation department started opening the barrage gates, but it took a long time because the process is manual.
“To open one gate, it takes around 45 minutes. The release was heavy. The opening process has not been updated since its inception. Our staff was at the barrage and opening the gates, but the heavy flow washed away the three gates,” he said, adding that one of their staff was also swept away.
According to one of the officials quoted earlier, the Madhopur barrage has a maximum flood discharge capacity of 17,750 cusecs. But the discharge was much higher this year.
Punjab is battling its worst floods in decades, with over 3.8 lakh people across all 23 districts impacted. The rivers—Ravi, Beas and Sutlej—are overflowing and have swamped villages across districts, including Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Pathankot, Ferozepur and Fazilka.
The flood has left the fields flooded, erased the roads and washed away houses, leaving people homeless across 1,900 villages. More than 40 people have lost their lives. The flood waters, triggered by heavy monsoon rain, are slowly receding, and rescue and rehabilitation work is now picking up pace.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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