PUNE: Ujani, the largest water source in the Bhima basin, was filled to
maximum capacity on Monday.
The dam, which has a storage capacity of a little more than 117 TMC, filled up four days before it did last year on August 31. This prompted the release of water into the river at the rate of 2,500 cubic feet per second (cusec). By Monday evening, water was being released at the rate of 10,000 cusec. The water release is likely to continue till Tuesday as the reservoir continued to get significant inflows — about 31,600 cusec — even on Monday.
This is the third consecutive year that the reservoir has reached its full capacity, thanks largely to the release of water from dams located in the upstream regions of Pune district, including the four dams in the Khadakwasla irrigation circle.
“The catchment areas of the Ujani dam have received less than 500mm of rainfall this monsoon. The dam has filled up to its maximum capacity because of the water release from upstream dams. This year, almost all the dams have released water almost continuously over the past one month, which has boosted the Ujani water level,” said an official of the irrigation department. Since July 3, the dam has added 60TMC water to its stock.
Located on the border of Pune and Solapur, Ujani supplies water to urban and rural areas of both the districts. The dam has a storage capacity of 117.23 TMC.
In the recent past, Ujani has reached its maximum capacity in 2013, 2014, 2016 as well as 2017.
Release of water from
Khadakwasla continues
Though the intensity of rain has reduced, the
Khadakwasla dam continued to release water on Monday. In the morning, water release started at the rate of 18,491 cusec, which came down to 11,439 cusec by the evening. Water release from Panshet was dropped to zero while Varagaon’s release was maintained at 4,441 cusec.
