NHP e-Bulletin

The one day workshop on Real-Time Data Acquisition and Dam SCADA for basin level chief engineers and their field functionaries was held in Bhopal on 6th March 2020. The workshop was inaugurated by Sh. M S Dabar, Engineer in Chief, WRD, MP. The presentation on SCADA was delivered by Sh. Rakesh Bhatt, TAMC expert. Vassar labs presented their work on APWRIMS. Representative from Mechatronics, Pune gave a presentation on RTDAS with some case studies from Maharashtra. Participants included various basin Chief engineers, SEs and EEs, officers from Engineer in Chief’s office, Bhopal along with BODHI (Bureau of Design, Hydel and Irrigation projects).

A meeting was held in the NHPC Corporate Office, Faridabad on 3rd March 2020 to discuss the issues of Development of Inflow Forecasting System for the Ranjit Sagar Dam, by the Punjab Water Resources Department under the National Hydrology Project (NHP). The meeting was attended by officers from the NHPC, NHP, MoJS, Ranjit Sagar Dam Project, Water Resources Department, Punjab. The NHPC agreed to share all relevant data as available with the NHPC and as required for calibration and validation of the model for inflow forecast to Ranjit Sagar Reservoir. Apart from IA of Punjab, the NHPC is also likely to be benefitted from the inflow forecast during the lean season for all its upstream projects with an expected lead time of 24 hours.

A total of 21 officials participated in a course named Remote Sensing & GIS Applications for Irrigated Command Area Inventory during 24-Feb to 06-Mar, 2020 from water resources departments of Central and State Governments as illustrated in the figure below.

Number of participants and IAs attended the two weeks training programme conducted during 24-Feb to 06-Mar, 2020

The course has been designed in such a way that it covers the overall concepts of irrigated command area inventory and performance evaluation using remote sensing and GIS, starting from the fundamentals of Remote Sensing and GIS till the application of the technologies in irrigation system performance evaluation. The training had hands-on exercise to enable the trainees to utilise the training in their official work. The lecture cum demo was given to participants on open sources GIS(QGIS), remote sensing applications in irrigated command areas, assessment of ground water potential etc. The guest lectures were also organised on ‘Geospatial irrigation data services through Odisha Irrigation Information System’, ‘Experience of Telangana Irrigation &CAD on use of geospatial technology’ and ‘Benchmarking for enhancing irrigation efficiency and water productivity in irrigation commands’ as a special arrangement for the participants. A Ground truth field visit was organized during the intervening weekend to Jurala Irrigation project. The estimation of PET and crop water requirement, performance evaluation based on indices using satellite derived information and field data with exhaustive hands on exercise on crop water requirement and generation of indices were covered in the training.

Telangana State Surface water, Irrigation & CAD Department hosted a training program “Hydrologic Modeling Using HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS” under National Hydrology Project during 2nd to 6th March, 2020 at WALAMTARI, Hyderabad, which was aimed at imparting training to the in-service engineers involved in the activities of Irrigation and Command Area Development, Agriculture officials of Agriculture Department and farmers. The faculties for the course were provided by National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee and Bhopal.

The Major topics covered were Introduction to Hydrological Modeling, Flood Plain Modeling, Validation of Discharge Data with tutorial and Flood Frequency Analysis, Principles of remote sensing and GIS and Hands on Training GIS Software (Arc GIS) covering delineation of catchment & Cross Sections, Hydrological modeling using HEC HMS theory & Practical and Hydrological modeling using HEC RAS 1 D Steady Flow Simulation. All the participants along with trainers also visited Nagarjuna Sagar Project where the telemetry site of Automatic Water Level Recorder is situated. Later the team visited Aliminati Madhava Reddy Project (Srisailam Left Bank Canal) and Balancing Reservoir called Akkampalli reservoir (Head Regulator).

A total of 35 officers have participated in the training program. Out of which 22 participants were from Telangana (SW) and remaining 13 participants were from Telangana (GW) & Andhra Pradesh (SW).

Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Awareness programmes on “Ground water issues, Management and Augmentation” under National Hydrology Project was organized by State Ground Water Department, Telangana during the months of February and March-2020 in the over exploited villages spreading over 8 districts of the state to raise awareness on these persisting issues. During the programmes 700 water users including farmers, School Teachers and School children were enlightened with Groundwater availability, its conservation & management, advanced irrigation techniques, Ground water recharge methods, effective water management towards agriculture and other domestic needs through utilization of audio visuals, posters, physical models, interactions, folk songs, kalajatharas etc. Focus was given to young school children and teachers from over-exploited villages.

• The installation of RTDAS system in Rajasthan under NHP is progressing well. Till date about 182 instruments (AWLR Dam-84, AWLR River-22, ARG-75, AWS-1) have been installed at various locations,. Out of which system were installed at 53 sites during this month. Further, Rajasthan has received the WPC license for RTDAS for 248 stations.
• Two days’ workshop for the officers of Water Resources department was organized by SPMU at Jaipur to sensitize about the ongoing activities of the National Hydrology Project in the State during 29th February to 01st March. About 60 participants attended the workshop. SPMU staff presented the achievement, activities under progress, future action plan and invited suggestions for the second phase of project.
• Two bids for the renovation of training center Irrigation Management and Training Center at Kota were floated during this month.