KL Report
SRINAGAR
Given the massive accumulations in the artificial lake that unprecedented floods created in Tulsibagh-Rajbagh belt, authorities expect the dewatering must be over in next four days. No engineer has, so far, been able to assess the quantity of water that is stored in the bowl located precariously between Jhelum and the Flood Spill channel.
“The fact is that the cut on its embankment is draining 100 cusecs of water which is more than all the machines we have put in take out,” one senior officer informed about the dewatering said. “The daily progress is merely reduction of five inches.”
However, the government is now commissioning heavy water drainage pumps that Haryana and Vadodra states have given to the state. “These pumps were not in use because these require power supply which we were unable to make to the areas where these will be positioned,” the officer said. “With these pumps we hope that water will be mostly drained out within four days.”
However, some engineers assert that the government may not be able to keep the promise given the failure in assessing the overall stagnant water in the ‘lake’. They say they given the property of water that it will return from the same track that it used to enter, the waters from Tulsibagh – Lal Ded belt will return to Kursoo area, dewatering will take more time.
Already, the water from Exhibiting Crossing has been drained out and the fire service pumps, albeit of small capacity, have been installed around Lal Chowk, another major inundated spot of the city, outside the still-flooded Bemina and Tengpora belt.
