MINUTES OF 4TH MEETING OF ‘’COMMITTEE FOR FORMULATING GUIDELINES

ON PLANNING OF STRUCTURES OF HYDROPOWER PROJECTS ON SEDIMENT

MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS’’

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The fourth meeting of the Committee for formulating guidelines on Planning of

Structures of Hydropower Projects on Sediment Management Consideration was held

on August 08, 2018 at Sewa Bhawan, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Member

(D&R), CWC to discuss and approve the draft guidelines prepared in this regard. The

list of participants present in the meeting is attached as Annexure I.

At the outset, Chairman of the Committee welcomed all those present. He stressed on

the importance of putting in place guidelines for structural measures for managing

reservoir sediment and also for making reservoir to act as large desanding basin, and

prevent sediment ingress into the intakes. He stated that reservoirs are always carrying

out this functionality but to account for it explicitly for protecting intakes, necessary

structural measures have to be put in place to manage sediment and keep a large

portion of reservoir free of sediment to enable it to act as large settling basin on long

term basis. He added that now a days, there is growing demand for effecting cost

saving in dams, particularly in hydel civil system. De-silting Chambers being provided

for managing sediment are not only costly but their construction is also difficult. There

is a growing thinking to assign their functionality to the reservoir. However, this requires

incorporation of certain structural measures in the dam body and also changes in the

project layout. The present guidelines, inter alia, also covers these structural measures,

including their location and desirable configuration of different structural components.

He stated that these guidelines are a first step towards putting in place the necessary

structural measures for managing sediment which may include making the reservoir act
as desanding basin. He added these guidelines would be periodically refined based on

experience from the performance of constructed projects. He, thereafter requested

Chief Engineer, Design (N&W), CWC to make the presentation on the guidelines

prepared before formal discussion on the guidelines by the Committee members.

The Chief Engineer, Design (N&W), before making the presentation, stated that draft

guidelines were circulated to all the members of the committee in May, 2018.

Thereafter, on the instructions of Member(D&R), draft guidelines were also circulated to

NHPC, SJVNL, IIT Roorkee and also to retired Members, Chairman and Chief

Engineers of CWC who were active in this field. He informed that response from

individuals viz, Shri. A.B. Pandya, Chairman (Retired) CWC; Shri. Dr. D.V. Thareja,

Member (Retired), CWC; and Shri Naresh Kumar, Chief Engineer (Retired), CWC had

been received which were circulated to all the members. He, thereafter, gave a detailed

presentation on the guidelines prepared. He stated that these guidelines have been

prepared based on the suggestion given in ICOLD bulletins and other documents listed

under ‘’References’’ section of the guidelines.

The presentation was followed up by a detailed discussion on the guidelines some of

the suggestions given during the discussion are as follows:

• Inclusion of India centric literature review of sediment management in hydro-

power projects.

• Separately addressing the sediment management issues of ROR and storage

projects.

• Taking into account the capacity of project while adopting structural measures.
 • Measures to deal with sedimentation issues in hydro-power projects having

limitations on lowering the reservoir water level.

• Define guidelines for numerical and physical model studies on sedimentation

management in reservoirs.

• Include the experience of some of the running projects.

• Address sediment management issue of ROR Schemes having smaller reservoir

capacity separately.

Chairman, while summing up the discussion, thanked all for their suggestions. He

stated omission of desilting chambers may not be feasible in all the projects. Only

wherever favourable conditions exists and levels of different structures can be

maintained, as suggested in the guidelines, they can be omitted. He stated that the

first version need to be released quickly, so that an objective framework can be put in

place for evaluating provision / omission of desilting basins. He stated that these

guidelines would help the developers in selecting, accepting and providing a particular

height of diversion / storage structure where desilting structure can be omitted. He

desired that the revised guidelines incorporating the suggestions that are feasible and

desirable shall be prepared and put up before the committee for approval. He stated

that this exercise may be completed in a month.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

 ANNEXURE - I

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

CWC :

1. Shri. N.K Mathur, Member(D&R) – In Chair

2. Shri. T.K Sivarajan, CE, Designs(E&NE)
3. Shri. S.K Sibal, CE, Designs(N&W)
4. Shri. M. Ramesh Kumar, Director, HCD(N&W)
5. Shri. P Devender Rao, Director, BCD(N&W)
6. Shri. Kayum Mohammad, Director, CMDD(NW&S)
7. Shri. S.K Das, Director, HCD(NW&S)
8. Shri. N.N Rai, Director, Hydrology(S)
9. Shri. Narendra Singh Shekhawat, Deputy Director, HCD(N&W)

CEA :

1. Shri. P.C Kureel, Secretary, CEA

2. Shri. Pankaj Gupta, Director, HE&TD

CWPRS :

1. Dr. V.V. Bhosekar, Director

2. Dr. Neena Issac, Scientist-E
3. Shri. P.S Kunjeer, Scientist-C

CSMRS :

1. Shri. Hassan Abdullah, Director

2. Smt. R. Chitra, Joint Director (Soil)

Special Invitees :

1. Shri. D.V. Thareja, Member (Retired), CWC

2. Shri. Naresh Kumar, Chief Engineer (Retired), CWC