GUWAHATI, May 11 � The 114-metre (374-feet) high, 92-MW Kulekhani Hydroelectric Projects� rock-fill dam in Nepal survived the April 25 earthquake of 7.9 magnitude that reduced vast parts of Nepal into rubble. This was stated by Professor Nayan Sarma of IIT Roorkee, who was informed of the fact by one of his M Tech students of Nepali origin, Ritesh Jaiswal.
It needs mention here that, according to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake which shook the Himalayan country with a peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.60g struck Kulekhani Dam area for a fraction of a second, which promptly decayed to 0.42g for three seconds, before finally tapering to 0.08g.
Jaiswal told Prof Sarma that besides the safety of the dam, the dam reservoir rim area also remained completely stable and did not witness any incident of landslide, contrary to apprehensions.
Kulekhani dam is situated closer to the epicentre of the April 25 earthquake, compared to Kathmandu city area where many buildings and other structures collapsed completely, resulting in a high rate of casualties.
The Kulekhani dam is a rock-fill dam on the Kulekhani river near Kulekhani in Makwanpur district of Narayani zone. It supports the 60-MW Kulekhani-I and 32-MW Kulekhani-II Hydropower Stations.
Construction of this dam project began in 1977 and Kulekhani-I was commissioned in 1982, followed by Kulekhani-II in 1986. A third power station with a 14-MW generation capacity was sought to be added to the dam�s chain of hydel power projects during the current month. The dam had cost US $ 117.94 million in its construction and it was funded by the World Bank, Kuwait Fund, UNDP, Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund and OPEC Fund. The dam is owned by the Nepal Electricity Authority.