Pune Panshet dam engineer committed suicide: witness

Late SM Bhalerao, the then executive engineer of Panshet dam, was so upset after the dam breach that he is said to have tried to commit suicide by jumping into the dam waters.

A group of workers prevented him from doing so, Mathabai More, a witness, told the media at the Panshet dam on Tuesday.

More was speaking at an event organised to observe the 50th anniversary of the burst of the dam and subsequent flooding in Pune city on July 12, 1961. Mathabai’s husband Shripati was a driver working at the Panshet dam project.

She told DNA that Bhalerao was terribly upset after the dam breached. People prevented him from committing suicide and locked him in a bungalow. She said that on the fateful day the dam was overflowing with water and there was no space to release it.
Another witness,

Ganapatrao Gaikwad, who was a gardener working in Bhalerao’s bungalow, said there was an order from higher-ups to complete the dam by 1961. About a fortnight prior to July 12, 1961, there was heavy rainfall leading to increase in water pressure on the wall.

He said that as the earthen filling was getting eroded, sand bags, tin sheets and whatever available was used to cover the dam wall. The army tried to protect the dam. However, the dam burst on the morning of July 12.

Gaikwad was later elected to the panchayat samiti as a member from the area. He said that in spite of such a disaster, the water resources department overcame all problems and
completed the dam.