The State Government has asked the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department to conduct an audit of embankments along the Jhelum and its tributaries so that effective flood prevention measures could be mounted.
Forecast of intermittent rain in June and July raised fearsthat the water level might rise in the Jhelum whose carrying capacity hasalready shrunk owing to encroachments and silting.
An official said the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir chaireda high-level meeting last month in which several heads of the departments,including Deputy Commissioners of many districts, participated to review floodpreparedness.
At the meeting, the Chief Engineer I&FC Kashmir wasdirected to conduct audit of embankments at the earliest to identify criticaland vulnerable spots which need immediate repairs or plugging so that immediatemeasures are taken to avoid breach of the embankments.
“Chief Engineer I&FC shall do zoning of river Jhelum andits tributaries/distributaries and issue necessary orders in respect ofzonal/sectoral/beat officers. He should conduct audit of resources and shallprepare list of the material viz geo bags, empty cement bags etc which will berequired in the event of eventuality,” reads a note of the meeting.
The note said the Chief Engineer I&FC informed themeeting that the water-holding capacity of the Jhelum has increased whencompared to its capacity in 2014 when a flood devastated the Valley.
However, he requested that funds should be allotted to clearprevious liabilities on works executed.
He also requested that the Bailey bridge constructed on theflood channel near Barzulla Bhagat needs to be removed so as to avoid anyuntoward incident in case the water level rises, the note reads.
The State Administrative Council (SAC) has already accordedin principle approval to the project “Comprehensive Plan for Flood ManagementWorks on Jhelum-II” costing Rs. 5411.54 crore.
After the 2014 flood, on the recommendations of a committeeconstituted by the Government of India, a multipronged strategy was adopted forflood mitigation in Kashmir.
Accordingly, to enhance carrying capacity of Jhelum from thethen 31000 cusec to 60000 cusecs, action was envisaged in two phases under thePrime Minister’s Development Programme.
After approval of the Phase-I for Rs 399.29 crore, the DPRof Phase-II was prepared for the remaining works. The said DPR namely”Comprehensive Plan for Flood Management Works on Jhelum: Phase-II” costing Rs5411.54 crore has been submitted to the Central water Commission (CWC).