The project, which was completed in 21 months, was needed to strengthen the 42-year old structure against the heavy flow of water during monsoons. Storage capacity at the dam’s reservoir has increased by 183Mm3 as a result of the work, which was undertaken by India’s Soma Enterprise Ltd (SEL) in a joint venture with SSHPR of Russia.
In September 2005, the water level in Koyna reservoir had reached alarming levels when as much as 322m of rainfall was recorded in the catchment area over 24 hours. It is expected that the fortified structure will be able to better handle such events in the future, as well as possible high intensity earthquakes.
