Pune: The British era Bhatghar dam in the Bhor tehsil got 100 per cent filled on Wednesday (August 19) night. 17 automatic gates of the dam were opened and a discharge of 4,200 cusecs into the Nira river began at 6 am on Thursday (August 20). On Tuesday (August 18) morning the dam had 97 per cent water storage.
It was estimated that the dam would be filled in 24 hours. However, due to receding rainfall in the catchment area of the dam, it took about 40 hours to fill the remaining 3 per cent of the dam. Wednesday midnight, 100 per cent which is 23.74 TMC of water was stored in the dam and the automatic gates of the dam started opening. One by one, 15 automatic doors were opened. A total of 17 automatic doors have opened since Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Rajendra Dhodpakar, Executive Engineer of Water Resources Department, Anil Nalawade, Branch Engineer, Nana Kamble, Amol Kapre and others were monitoring the dam for two days.
The jalpujan, an annual ritual of worshipping the rainwater, was conducted by Rajendra Dhodpakar on Wednesday evening. Former Bhor Municipal Councilor Jagdish Kirve and NCP city president Nitin Dharane were present on the occasion.
About two and a half lakh hectare area in 9 tehsils of Pune, Satara and Solapur districts comes under water from Bhatghar dam. The dam has a total 81 gates including 45 automatic and 36 rolling (manual) gates. Due to late onset of rains in the tehsil this year, it took more than 16 days to fill the dam.
The dam was filled on August 4 last year. In 2018, the dam was filled on August 13. Nira Deodhar, the second dam in the tehsil with a capacity of 11.93 TMC is 91.11 percent full. This dam is also expected to be 100 per cent full in the next two to four days.
The Gunjavani dam in Velhe taluka is also 100 per cent full and the discharge of water from the dam is 200 cusecs. As water from Bhatghar, Gunjavani and Nira-Devdhar dams is flowing into Veer dam, discharge of water from Veer dam spillway has started at 9,774 cusecs since Thursday (August 20) morning.
