Telangana plans to widen spillway capacity of Srisailam dam

Hyderabad: In yet another move that is bound to trigger a controversy, the Telangana state government on Saturday constituted a nine-member expert committee to study the feasibility of increasing the spillway capacity of the Srisailam dam, the maintenance which is presently under the AP government’s control.

Principal secretary S.K. Joshi on Saturday issued GO 75 to this effect, constituting a nine-member committee with engineering-in-chief (irrigation) C. Muralidhar as chairman and Nagarjunasagar chief engineer as member-convener.

After the state bifurcation and constitution of the Krishna River Management Board, the maintenance of the Srisailam dam was to be done by Andhra Pradesh and that of the Nagarjunasagar dam by Telangana.

Any decision with regard to increasing the capacity of the spillway, that too for the Srisailam dam, should have been done in consultation with the KRMB, that is headed by Union government officials, and the Andhra Pradesh government. In this case the Telangana government did not follow either as per the GO released on Saturday.

The KRMB chairman and secretary are expected on May 9 to take stock of the situation with regard to the water release for the Kharif season from both the Srisailam and the Nagarjunasagar dams. The Srisailam dam was constructed and completed in all respects in 1984 including erection of 12 spillway gates.