Agartala, October 7 (TIWN): The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) has asked the Department of Power to find out the extent of danger of breach possibilities at Dumbur dam after meeting with the state disaster management authority and the revenue department, official sources said.

A highly placed source in the state disaster management authority said that the Chief Minsiter’s office taken cognizance of the threat of breach possibilities at Dumbur dam after the news hit the headlines last month. The Department of Power was asked to take up the issue with the state disaster management authority and finalize extent of threat to be further taken up at higher levels.

The Gumti hydro-electric project at Dumbur which was long due for renovation and technical upgradation is now facing serious complications as the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) has been harvesting power from the state’s lone hydro-electric  project for years without any effort of restoring it to the standard safety levels, the source had earlier said.

On the Dumbur dam, the source said that a proposal of gross renovation is lying pending with the Ministry of Power since the last three years after the last CWC team visited Tripura.

A recent visit of an expert team from the Geo Hazard International brought the issue to notice. The expert panel took stock of latest situation in river bank erosion, dam projects and water reservoirs operational in the state. It spoke about increasing breach possibilities in the Dumbur dam and water reservoir.

Asked about the issue, a source in the power department staff working inside the project said that the Gumti hydroelectric project at Dumbur has gone down in power generation graph over the years. The project now generates barely 5-6 MW for 6 months a year with absolutely no power generation for the rest of the year.

The project’s spillway was breached years back with risks of further breach in the output that makes way for nearly 80 percent of the water accumulated of the reservoir to build pressure.