Chandigarh, Jul 29 (PTI) Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal on Tuesday reviewed the arrangements made by his department to deal with any potential floods.
He said the government has completed the cleaning of the state’s drainage systems and strengthened embankments to tackle any flood-like situation.
Many parts of Punjab have received moderate to heavy rain in recent days.
Goyal said the state government has completed 1,220 projects worth Rs 276 crore to tackle any potential flood situation. These include river revetment work, installation of studs, strengthening operations and desilting of drains.
Additionally, 600 check dams have been constructed and 1,104 more are under construction. Besides, 3,905 soak pits are being created, over 53,400 bamboo saplings have been planted and 226 kilometres of vetiver grass has been cultivated.
Vetiver grass is used for erosion control.
Goyal said that out of the 850 drains, 601 required cleaning this year, which has been completed. So far, 4,766 kilometres of drains have been cleaned.
The department completed drain desilting using departmental machinery, resulting in 65 per cent cost savings compared to contractor work, he said.
The locations where embankments were breached during previous years have been specially reinforced and sandbags have been strategically placed at 94 vulnerable locations across the state as a precautionary measure, he added.
Goyal said the Water Resources Department has implemented several strategic measures to handle emergencies, including the procurement of 8.76 lakh sandbags.
Of these, 3.24 lakh sandbags have been filled and kept ready. For rapid response during emergencies, locations of sandbags have been uploaded onto the Geographic Information System (GIS), he said.
For the first time, the minister said, the department has purchased 10,300 jumbo bags to enable quick breach filling.
Goyal said water levels in all major dams in the state are within the safe limit and there is no cause for concern.
The Bhakra dam currently stands at 1,618.38 feet, which corresponds to the average requirement of the past 20 years. The dam has a maximum capacity of 1,680 feet and is currently 47 feet below the 2023 flood level, he said.
The Pong dam, which has a maximum capacity of 1,390 feet, stands at 1,346.15 feet — 30.78 feet lower than the 2023 flood level.
The Ranjit Sagar dam, with a maximum capacity of 1,731.55 feet, currently stands at 1,664.72 feet — 5.49 feet below the 20-year average and 54 feet below the 2023 flood year level. PTI SUN DIV DIV
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