Tsangpo barrier dam breached, water bomb hurtling towards India

India is holding its breadth as the breached water bomb of river Tsangpo will enter India this afternoon at Imkiyong  and then hurtling towards more populous area of Passighat down south, at a distance of 210 km down south.

The Chinese authorities informed India that water of the barrier dam caused by the landslide has overtopped at 1500 hours yesterday and immediately Cabinet Secretary hold a series of meeting while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prema Khandu.

The NDRF team flew in from Kolkatta and they are being positioned in Passighat and Siang district while Air Force Chopper took off to visually monitor the scene from the top. The Central Water Commission is the nodal agency monitoring the scene with their ground team based all over the route of Siang.

The preliminary estimation that water is coming down at a velocity of 18000 cusecm, which is bearable for Siang without causing much harm in the downstream populous areas like Passighat. But nobody is sure what would be  the exact quantity of the river although the CWC estimated that there could be 484 million cubic metere till 8 p.m (IST) of October 18. The storage was increasing  by about 8 MCM per hour.

The point of landslide was Milin section, 70 kilometere  from Nuxla Hydrological Station at Tibet  and river overtopped at 1400 hours yesterday. The worst affected will be Sigar, Ralling Borguli, seram and Namsing area of Passighat distrct.

8 companies of NDRF are being places at Tuting,  Yingkiong, Pangin and Passighat/Mebo.