The History of Lake Fife, NDA & Burr and Frere Roads, Kirkee, Poona

      LAKE FIFE AT THE NDA, KHADAKWASLA                 BITS OF HISTORY            

Burr and Frere Roads, Khadki, Pune-3

If you ever go to Khadki, Pune-3, you will not see any signage showing either Frere or Burr Road. Frere Rd has become Field Marshal Cariappa Marg, whereas all signboards in the area have been defaced to remove the name BURR. Burr Road starts from Mula Road, parallel to the Mula River, from a once-swampy area called Bhaiyawadi, runs across the cantonment area, past the Central Armoured Fighting Vehicle Depot (CAFVD), Kirkee, Officers' Mess, my home 10 Frere Road and ends up at the military barracks that Kirkee was famous for. Google Maps show that road as Khadki Railway Station Marg, which is not the case. So who were these names dedicated to? Brits, of course.

The Battle of Khadki,also known as the Battle of Kirkee, took place at Khadki, India on November 5, 1817 between the forces of the British East India Company and those of Bajirao II, the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. Khadki is situated on the outskirts of Pune in Maharashtra, India. It later became a military cantonment. Put together, Khadki and Pune Cantonments form the largest cantonment in the world. Kirkee and Poona have become Khadki and Pune in 1978. Get rid of all vestiges of British residence in India; purge the names. Fair enough.

The East India Company's army was led by Lt. Colonel Burr, who came in from Dapuri village to the west. Dapuri is now Dapodi. The British Resident's name was Mountstuart Elphinston. Elphinston (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai). Besides being a noted administrator, he wrote books on India and Afghanistan. Elphinston Road starts from Dapodi Bridge and runs through Khadki, the Bengal Engg Gp HQ, Deccan College and ends at the Bund Garden bridges at Yerwada, known to the Brits as Yelloura. Burr Road was named after Lt. Colonel Burr. 

Sir Henry Bartle Frere was appointed as High Commissioner for Southern Africa in 1869, moving from Poona on promotion. His sister, Mary Frere was the author of Old Deccan Days (1868), and Frere Road was named after Bartle Frere, though may believe it was named after Mary.

Harold Charles Chatellier (~1870-1962), the Manager of the Kirkee Club (later Kirkee Police Station and now Khadki Cheshire Home) stated that Frere Road, when first constructed a few years before his birth, ran from Mula River, past the Club all the way to Military Hospital, Kirkee, some 8 km (5 miles) and had maps to prove it. It was sectioned post Independence to run from its Elphinston Road crossing to the new Bombay-Poona highway. The next part, up to the railway line, wasted away into a stony path, but the remainder, from the railway line to MH Kirkee, was renamed MH Road..

NDA & LAKE FIFE

'Khadakwasla Dam  is a dam on the Mutha River some 8 km from the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India. This dam is one of the main sources of water for Pune and its suburbs. In the vicinity of the dam, there is the well-known National Defence Academy (India), the Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT)  and Central Water & Power Research Station (CWPRS). A few kilometres up the road lie Sinhagad Fort and the twin dams of Panshet and Varasgaon which mainly supply water for irrigation.

The Panshet dam was nearing completion in July 1961, designed essentially to supply water to Lake Fife, or Khadakwasla Lake, in such a manner that the huge lake would have more than adequate water for the people of Poona (Pune). The reservoir is the source of water for two canals that start at Khadakwasla. The right bank canal  irrigates about 45,000 hectares of land in Pune district, while the left bank canal supplies drinking water to Pune and Kirkee.

The Panshet reservoir would have a capacity of 2.70 million cubic metres, with Varasgaon reservoir, a larger body, having even more. The Khadkawasla Dam was constructed in 1879 by Capt Fife as a masonry gravity dam, founded on hard rock. It had a height of 31.25 m above the river bed, with a 8.37 m depth of foundation. Its crest length was 1.471 m and had a free board of 2.74 m. The dam had a flood capacity of 2,775 m3/s and a reservoir of 2.78 million cubic metres. It could not accept water from both Panshet and Varasgaon together, unless its sluice gates were fully open, causing an overflow of water into Pune, which would perforce allow the waters to end up in the Bhima River and add to water in reverse flow into the Mula River coming East all the way from Mulshi Lake and dam near Lonavla, a hill station some 50 km West of modern Pune.

Panshet Dam was zoned at a height of 51 m with impervious central core outlet gates located in a trench of the left abutment; hoists were not fully installed when floods occurred at the site of construction. The reservoir had a capacity of 2.70 million m3. Between June 18 and July 12, 1961, the recorded rainfall was 1778 mm (71”), stressing Panshet dam to its limits.

Lake Fife was already 90% full, with water flowing in freely from Varasgaon, besides the abundant rainfall. The people of Pune had no idea of their fate. The rain caused such a rapid rise of the reservoir water level at Panshet that the new embankment could not adjust to the dangerous loading condition. Water rose at the rate of 9 m per day initially, and 24 m in 12 days. Due to incomplete rough outlet surface, the flow through was unsteady which caused pressure surges. Cracks were formed along the edges of the right angles to the axis of the dam causing a subsidence 9 m wide, leaving the crest of the dam 0.6 m (2 feet) above the reservoir level on July 11. The failure was attributed to inadequate provision of the outlet facility during emergency. This caused the fateful collapse of the structure above the outlets. 

What is little known and needs be made public was that '''The People of Pune were Saved Once Again, by the vigilant Indian Armed Forces.'''3,000 Soldiers from the Bombay Engineering Group and Centre(BEG), the College of Military Engineering (CME) and other units were dispatched by HQ Southern Command, Pune, to help. They formed a human chain at Panshet Dam, as Army and commandeered civil trucks brought sandbags by the tens of thousands to shore up Panshet Dam. The engineers were certain the dam would collapse; they were praying that the Armed Forces personnel's aid would delay the inevitable to dawn, so that the people of Pune could be warned in time and those living on the banks of the rivers Mutha and Mula could be evacuated. Despite their best efforts, Panshet Dam caved in at 0330 hrs on July 12 1961. Khadakvasla Dam was the last barrier. 

It took another four hours for Khadakvasla Dam to breach, causing devastating floods in Pune. The dam was later rebuilt. The original dam, built in 1879 as a masonry gravity dam founded on hard rock was the first of its kind in the world.This dam was designed by Sir M. Visvesvaraya. 

Residents started getting some warnings early in the morning and the authorities started moving out the residents living near the riverside. Many residents fled to higher grounds, some all the way to the Parvati Hill. Apparently, All India Radio did not broadcast any warnings, and was playing a regular scheduled music program when the floods struck. The low lying areas of the old city were almost completely submerged. Except for the Bund Garden Bridge, all the bridges were under water as well. Water rushed into the old ‘Peths’ and along Karve Road, Deccan Gymkhana areas. For many hours, the high water levels persisted. Roughly speaking Panshet water reservoir stores enough water for all of Pune’s city needs today (today’s needs are probably 5-10 times more than the 1960s requirements). Imagine all that water being drained out in just a few hours! Some people and rescue workers were trying navigate Deccan Gymkhana, Fergusson College/Jangli Maharaj Road areas in small boats.