Water gushes out of the broken Gate 17 of Farakka Barrage. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Feb. 22: One of the lock gates of Farakka Barrage collapsed yesterday, draining the water out of fields in Hamidpur and Rajnagar where standing crop had remained submerged for the past 12 days.

While the farmers are happy, the collapse of the gate and the resulting discharge of water towards Bangladesh have caused serious concern to the barrage authorities.

Gate 17 on the Murshidabad end of the barrage suddenly caved in around 4 pm yesterday, flooding parts of Bangladesh and certain areas on the Indian side. However, it also meant that water levels in the Hamidpur and Rajnagar gram panchayat areas of Malda receded fast and stretches of bodo paddy emerged.

The farmers, who had lost all hope of being able to harvest the crop, breathed a sigh of relief.

“By the grace of god, the standing crops can be saved now. Repeated appeals to the ministers and district authorities had gone unheeded. But the broken lock gate has come to our rescue,” said Bijan Ghosh, a farmer from Rajnagar village.

On the other hand, the sudden loss of water on the Indian side led to fears that National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) might have to shut down its Farakka barrage unit at any time. Top NTPC officials, including assistant general manager N.K. Kothari, visited the site soon after the lock gate caved in yesterday.

A senior official said engineers were working desperately to contain the damage but it would take a while to replace the smashed lock gate.

In the long run, even Calcutta port can get affected if the water level of the Hooghly drops beyond navigable depth.

General manager of Farakka Barrage Osman Ghani avoided direct questions saying that the matter involved the interests of two countries. He admitted that large quantities of water were entering Bangladesh, but said there was no way to calculate the loss. “When we partially open the sluice gates we can calculate the amount of water passing through per second but since one of the gates has collapsed completely, there is no way to tell how much water has escaped,” he added.

Ghani refused to comment when asked if the poor maintenance was the cause of the collapse of the lock gate. Local CPM MLA Biswanath Ghosh alleged that the barrage authorities were more busy conducting anti-erosion work on the Tangon, Phulhar, Punarbhava and Mahananda rivers passing through South and North Dinajpur districts to keep Union minister for water resources Priya Ranjan Das Munshi in good humour.

“Otherwise, how can a general manager of the barrage be allowed to continue in the same post for years,” he asked, referring to Ghani.