A Variety of excursions

A Variety of Excursions – January to March 2008

During the winter period I went on a number of weekend and day long excursions starting with a visit to Badhave Village in January. I will write just a few words about each excursion and let the photos tell the story.

January 12 & 13: Visit to Badhave Village
After many false starts I finally got organized. Badhave Village is about four km north of Shamli a medium sized town in Muzaffarnagar District of Uttar Pradesh. It is about 120 km from Roorkee. I went by taxi as I was advised getting there could be difficult with a good chance of getting lost. My host was Anil Deshwal, wife Madhu and adopted children Nilu (daughter) and Som (son). They own a farm of about 11 acres which is mostly in cane, some wheat and a small wood lot. Anil is Gita’s brother and the only member of Ummaji’s family that I had not met before. They are relatively prosperous farmers in a relatively prosperous village. They have a couple of cows and a buffalo but use a tractor for farm work. I enjoyed the company and home cooking and ate and drank too much!

January 25 & 26: Visit to Bhilaugana and Tehri Hydro Projects
I joined colleagues D.K.Agarwal, M.S.Verma and Deepak on an inspection trip to look at progress on construction of Bhilaugana Hydro Project. Although small by the Indian classification system (3 units of 7.5 MW = 22.5 MW) it is still a challenging job involving a low diversion dam and intake, and waterway comprising a 3.5 km long power tunnel in two sections, an underground desander (or settling basin) in a huge cavern and a surface powerhouse on the river bank; but the head is only about 90 m. It is a run-of-river project with a minimal reservoir. The project is about three quarters complete. Many features reminded me of Cat Arm and Paradise River Hydro projects in Newfoundland. The extensive civil engineering works, dam and tunnels in particular would have made a project like this un-economic in Canada. While the cost of power (in international terms) will be quite low from this project, it will be expensive when compared with the consumer’s ability to pay. We spent a rather cold night at Ghansyali after completing our inspection.

On the way back we stopped and took many photos of Tehri Hydro Project that is one of India’s proudest accomplishments in hydro design and construction (and one of the most controversial). The large project includes a 60 km long storage reservoir that required relocation of several thousand people into a new town - predictably called New Tehri. The present capacity is 1000 MW but it is planned to add another 500 MW of pumped storage capacity that will operate in tandem with a new re-regulating station downstream. We didn’t go into the station which is underground but had a good view of the dam, intakes and spillways from the road.


Add Bhilaugana/Tehri photos here.
January 29: Visit to Belka and Manal Small Hydro Projects
I joined students attending an international course on small hydro put on by AHEC. We went on a one day excursion to see two hydro plants. We left the campus after breakfast at 9:00am and reached Belka Hydro Station at about 11:00 am. This station utilizes the head of two old drop structures on the East Yamuna Canal - about 6 m to produce 3 MW. This is a very low head project that is economic only because the flow in the canal is large. After lunch at Paonta Sahib a town on the Uttar Pradesh / Himalchal Pradesh border we continued into the hills to visit Manal Hydel, another small hydro station but of a very different type. It also produces 3 MW but uses much less water as this station is a high head plant where the head utilized is 220 m. After this visit it was a long return trip to the campus which we reached at 8:00 pm. I gave a lecture on design of head works in this course so I earned the day off! There were about twenty students mainly from Africa and Asia. I was offered a possible assignment in Kurdistan Province of Iraq by one of the attendees but I think I would rather go to a more peaceful place.


February 10: Mittal Wedding.
This was my fourth wedding feast but only the first to hold the festivities during the day. The wedding was between Namita Mittal, daughter of the professor whose course I audited and Lucky Saini. I think he is indeed a lucky fellow. The weather was perfect.

March 1 to 5: Excursions with Naipal.
My good friend Naipal from Halifax was visiting India to see friends and family and I joined him in Ghaziabad for the weekend plus a couple of days. The highlight of this visit was our Sunday excursion to Badave (again) and Gurana villages, respectively Gita’s and Naipal’s home villages. Ummaji had recently returned from Canada and had sponsored a five day havan ceremony for villagers, friends and relatives. We arrived just at the very end of the fifth day of the program in time to join the feast but too late for the religious ceremonies. After a couple of hours of socializing we headed off to Gurana - Naipal’s village to meet his brothers and see his 100 year old mother. It was a rather short visit but we saw everyone and had a quick look at the fields of sugar cane. Naipal’s two older brothers manage the farm. Of their sons I think only one or two will remain in the village as farmers. It seems few of the younger generation are interested in farming and I suspect there is quite an exodus of talent from village to town. Also farm incomes are not keeping up with incomes in other sectors especially as costs to farmers are rising faster than prices for their produce. I spent a couple more days in Ghaziabad commuting into Delhi to get my Bangladeshi visa. It is frustrating business dealing with governments who contrive to make a half hour transaction take a full day to complete.