On Punjab Floods Tripathi Defends BBMB, Calls for Better State-Level Flood Preparedness
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ September 5,2025
Today, Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) chairman Manoj Tripathi along with other two members of the board invited the media to clarify board’s position on floods in Punjab after it was being alleged by many politicians, opposition leaders, social quarters that the disaster was manmade and could have been averted in case the BBMB and the Punjab government had planned well.
Tripathi on Friday said “as Punjab had received unprecedented water in the current monsoon season, from the catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the floods in Punjab were inevitable.
This year, the Beas River has witnessed the highest inflows to the tune of 11.70 BCM (billion cubic meter),”, surpassing even those of 1988,2019 & 2023 while the Sutlej River has recorded inflows of 9.11 BCM (billion cubic meter),” close to its historical peaks.
Tripathi added “BBMB have a limitation to hold water in its dam and in case we receive more water than that we are left with no option but to release the water downstream into the rivers to avoid any untoward incident. ”
Passing the buck to Punjab government, BBMB Chairman Tripathi added “the situation could have been averted from turning worse had the Punjab government managed the water courses – rivers and canal by timely de-silting and strengthening of embankments. ”
He informed that water is being regulated strictly in accordance with the Rule Curves prepared by the CWC, and all dam safety protocols are being followed, including issuing timely notices and activating Early Warning Systems (EWS). The dams over Sutlej and Beas rivers – Bhakra and Pong are managed by the BBMB.
“BBMB management in the past had decided to bring down the maximum filling level 1680 feet in case of Bhakra Dam and 1400 feet in case of Pong dam, which can be extended 1690 feet and 1410 feet. The ten feet space has been kept as a cushion for tougher times, added Tripathi.
The BBMB dams play a critical role in flood moderation. Without these dams, severe flooding would have occurred as early as June,Tripathi said.
Tripathi further informed that the Pong dam has received 2.2 lakh cusecs and Bhakra Dam has received 1.90 cusecs on a single day and maximum release from Pong was 1.10 cusecs and from Bhakra was 85,000 cusecs.
“In the current scenario, we may take the level of Pong dam reservoir to 1410 feet, but would not let levels at Bhakra dam to be beyond 1680 feet,” clarified the BBMB chairman.
Tripathi said that the water releases from BBMB dams are managed through a coordinated approach by the Technical Committee (TCM), which comprises Chief Engineers from partner states (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan), representatives from the Central Water Commission (CWC), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Agriculture Department, and BBMB.
He took on the partner states for adopting conservative approach of not using the dam water completely and taking a portion of available quantity of water to the next season. “I have pushed the states for not adhering to the formula rather I had recommended emptying the dam as far as possible, had we exhausted the waters in the summers we would not have faced such a difficult situation,” he told the media persons.
He further said “over the years huge amounts of silt deposited in the Gobind Sagar lake have eaten into atleast one-fourth of the storage space and the board was working on an action plan for de-silting without lowering the water levels. “
BBMB chairman in his concluding note said “there is no major threat of excess water coming into the dams now, as the rainfall in the catchment areas have receded. “As per the weather predictions rainfall will continue until September 15, but in case there’s heavy rainfall we are ready to deal it with.”
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