CEA issues guidelines for hydro projects after disaster in Sikkim
NEW DELHI : India’s apex power planning body, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), has come up with guidelines for slope stability—inclines that can withstand movement—in hydropower projects after heavy rains and glacial lake floods damaged a dam in Sikkim. The guidelines said that in the case of projects that are “vulnerable", the project authority or developer would be responsible for examining the upper reaches, including the reservoir, identify fault sites and take remedial measures for stabilization.
Vulnerable projects are defined as those with 400MW and above capacity. “The examination of upper reaches may include study of hazards due to avalanche, GLOF (glacier lake outburst flood), landslide hazard analysis of slopes above the reservoir rim area, among others," it said.
Himalayan states have witnessed several disasters floods, landslides and collapse of dams in the past few years, the latest being the collapse of the Chungthang dam in Sikkim, which followed a GLOF in northern Sikkim. In the guidelines, CEA has outlined slope stabilization methods, practices to be followed both before construction and after commissioning of the project.
It also suggested collection of records of all major slope failures including satellite imageries in and around the project area going back over 20 years. Noting that physical access to glaciated, major landslide zones or avalanche-prone areas in the mountains is always difficult, the notification said: “Vulnerable zones in these areas can be identified using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques with limited field work.
The dimension (length, width and depth), angle and altitude of slope, volume, etc. of the potential slide zones may be measured
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