Gates not to be opened at Srisailam dam

Hyderabad: The Srisailam dam, the lifeline for Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh, is nearing its full level of 885 feet. On Sunday evening, water stood at 883 ft.

It is unlikely, however, that tourists will get to witness the spectacular sight of water plunging down the spillway of the dam on its way to Nagarjunasagar.

Like last year, it is likely that the Srisailam dam authorities will keep the level at 884.70 ft, and release water to various canals and sluices without operating the spillway gates.

On Sunday, the dam had 204 tmc ft of water against full capacity of 215 tmc ft. The inflows are around 45,000 cusecs, which are being let out through the power house by the Telangana state government, and through Pothireddypadu regulator by AP officials.

According to Srisailam dam chief engineer C. Narayana Reddy, local rains in the Tunga-bhadra catchment area had resulted in 40,000 cusecs flowing into the Sunkesula barrage in Kurnool district besides around 40,000 cusecs from the Krishna river through Jurala.

However, he ruled out operating the spillway gates as both states were operating power houses to generate power.  The power houses can use a total of 7 tmc ft of water (around 80,000 cusecs) to generate power (900 megawatts by the Telangana state government and 770 megawatts by AP). The water from the power houses will reach the Nagarjunasagar dam.