Hyderabad: All gates lifted at Nagarjunasagar

Hyderabad: In an unprecedented manner, officials lifted all 26 crest gates of the Nagarjunasagar project were lifted due to heavy inflow of water. This is the first time since the floods of 2009 that all the gates were opened. In the intervening years, officials have lifted a few gates to release floodwater.

Nagarjunasagar chief engineer Narasimha said that due to heavy rains in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Almati and Narayanpur reservoirs in Karnataka and Jurala in Telangana state were receiving heavy inflows of 10 lakh cusecs. Around 7.7 lakh cusecs of water was reaching Nagarjunasagar and this level of inflow will continue for 48 hours.

He said that the water level in Nagarjunasagar stood at 564 feet. Keeping in view orders from Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao they were releasing water downstream to the Pulichintala project which has a capacity of 40 tmc ft. It is expected that the project will fill up by midnight.

Mr Narasimha said officials had started lifting the gates at 10 am and had lifted all gates by 3 pm, releasing 3.7 lakh cusecs. The dam will be filled to its full reservoir level of 590 feet, he said.

Flood warning had been issued to the villages and low-lying areas downstream of the project.

Mr. Narsimha said that the inflows were resembling those of 2009 when the project reached its full storage capacity within short time due to heavy inflows.

Hearing the news of the crest gates being opened, there was a rush of visitors especially in view of the Bakrid holiday.

Jurala project executive engineer Sridhar said the project has receiving 8.34 lakh cusecs and they are releasing 8.26 lakh causes and the trend is increasing.  He that they were expecting that heavy inflows will continue for a few more days.