C T Online Desk: The 16 spillway gates of the Kaptai Hydro-Electric Power Plant in Rangamati have been opened.
At 8:30am on Sunday, all 16 gates were opened by 6 inches each. Since the gates were opened, water has been flowing out with strong force.
The information was confirmed by ATM Abduzzaher, the manager of the power station.
The power station manager said: “Due to several days of continuous rainfall and water flowing in from upstream, the water level of Kaptai Lake increased, leading to the opening of the 16 spillway gates to control the flood situation. On Saturday night, the water level in Kaptai Lake crossed the 108 feet mean sea level (MSL). By Sunday morning, it had reached 108.32 feet, thus exceeding the danger limit.”
“Following the lake management committee’s recommendation, we released water through 16 gates of the Kaptai spillway by 6 inches each at 8am on Sunday. This resulted in the discharge of 9,000 cubic feet per second of water through the 16 gates, flowing into the adjacent Karnaphuli River,” he added.
None of the gates were opened last night as the expected inflow of water was not received.
The Kaptai power plant is currently generating a maximum of 219MW of electricity from its five units. Each unit is discharging 32,000 CFS of water.
