RAJAHMUNDRY (AP), Nov 1 � A noted enviromentalist and expert from Andhra Pradesh has demanded redesign and reduction in height of the 115-metre Subansiri dam in Assam to minimise its adverse environmental impacts.
�This 115-metre-high concrete dam over Subansiri river, a tributary of Brahmaputra, is highly under-designed as the spillway is designed for peak flood of 12,000 cumecs even though the historical maximum flood of 21200 cumecs occurred in July 1971,� Professor T Shivaji Rao, Director, Centre for Environment Studies, GITAM University and Expert, Cloudseeding project in Andhra Pradesh, said in a release here.
Also, the 2000-MW hydel project is fraught with danger because of its location in a highly seismic zone, he said.
As per international standards, the spillway design flood must be at least 2-3 times this historical flood amounting to at least 50,000 cumecs. Even then the dam remains under- designed from the structural safety angle because the seismic coefficient used for the design of the dam is 0.4 as against the anticipated peak value of 1.0, Rao said.
