Hydro project penstock bursts, water enters Multhan houses

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, May 10

A flood-like situation arose at Multhan village, 65 km from here, after a penstock of Kundah Pumped (KU) Hydropower Project burst this morning, damaging dozens of houses, shops and cultivated land. Most of the affected people were taken to safer places. No loss of human life was reported, the Baijnath SDM said.

CM orders inspection at all hydropower projects in state

• A penstock is a high diameter pipe, which takes water from the reservoir to hydropower project for running the turbines for power generation.
• Reacting to the Multhan incident, CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu directed inspection of penstocks in all hyropower project located in the state
• Locals allege penstock was leaking for past many days, but project management did not act

The roads were flooded and slush entered shops and houses in the area.

The KU Hydropower Project is a small facility built on the banks of Lamba Dug river in the Chhota Bhangal valley of Kangra district.

Locals told The Tribune that the penstocks of power project were leaking for the past many days, but the project management made no efforts to repair these.

Baijnath MLA Kishori Lal, who is also a Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), reached on the spot and supervised relief and rescue operation. He also held a meeting with the management of the hydropower project and directed it to compensate people who have suffered losses.

The CPS also asked the management to ensure that the incident was not repeated The police have registered a case against the management and an investigation is underway.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has directed the state authorities to inspect penstocks of all the power houses located in the state, keeping in view the safety of people residing around these projects.

He said project management must give priority to the safety of people.

The Chief Minister added that a major tragedy was averted as the project reservoir had a limited water storage capacity.

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