Chandigarh, Aug. 28 -- A sudden five-foot rise in the water level at the Pong Dam reservoir within 24 hours-from 1,388 feet on Tuesday to 1,393 feet on Wednesday-has raised serious concerns among authorities. This marks the sharpest single-day increase of the season so far. The areas downstream of the Beas river have been inundated for the past week due to excess water released from the dam's floodgates, open for the past 10 days. Currently, 2.28 lakh cusecs is flowing into the reservoir and 64,000 cusecs is being released - 38,000 cusecs from the turbines and the remaining 26,000 cusecs from floodgates. Though the reservoir can be filled up to 1,410 feet, the floodgates have been opened at an early stage because heavy rainfall was predicted in the catchment areas of the Beas in Mandi district of Himachal. The cloudbursts added to the flow of water. According to the meteorology department, rainfall has receded in the catchment areas of the three dams - Pong over Beas, Bhakra over Sutlej and the Ranjit Sagar Dam over Ravi for two days, until August 29. "All three dams are full to the brim. In case of rainfall in the catchment areas of these dams, the water that will flow into the river will be the same as received in the reservoirs because there is not much space left to hold more water," said an official of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), wishing not to be named. The water level in Bhakra Dam has risen one feet overnight and it touched 1671.5 feet which was 1636.5 feet on the same day last year. The Gobind Sagar Lake, reservoir of the dam, is currently receiving 59,000 cusecs which was 31,500 cusecs on the same day last year. At Bhakra, 43,635 cusecs are being released. The water levels at Ranjit Sagar Dam has receded from 527.7 metres on Tuesday to 526.86 metres on Wednesday. The dam reservoir is receiving 1.63 lakh cusecs and 1.73 lakh cusecs is being released....