CHANNELIZATION IN A REACH OF BEAS RIVER - A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Beas River at Kullu, in the Himachal Pradesh of India, is a perennial snow fed mountainous river. A small township called Bhuntar is located along the banks of this river. A domestic airport is situated at Bhuntar along the right floodplain of the river. Every year the flood in the river inundates a larger area and frequently inundates the airport often disrupting the air services. To mitigate the frequent recurring flood problem, the airport authority and the flood control department of Kullu district have been carrying out flood protection measures but the problem has not been solved yet. The flood of 1995 severely damaged the existing bank protection works in the river and also damaged the airport runway, interrupting the air service for a long time. Kullu is an attractive tourist destination and the number of tourists is increasing every year. The existing runway is 1128 m long and 30.5 m wide and is suitable for landing of small 16-18 seated aircraft only. So the airport authority is planning to extend the runway to increase capacity for landing of bigger aircraft. Presently the airport authority has decided to extend the existing runway length by 1000 m and to increase the width to 200 m (100m on either side from the centerline of the runway)....