At last Nagarjunasagar gets water

Hyderabad: Nagarjunasagar, the only major project on the Krishna that was empty, is getting good inflows. By Saturday evening, the Srisailam dam was releasing 2.6 lakh cusecs to Nagarjunasagar, 1.94 lakh cusecs from the seven out of the 12 gates, and 73,000 cusecs from two power houses.

Water stood at 540 feet at Nagarjunasagar (full reservoir level 590 ft), and storage had risen to 187 tmc ft (full capacity: 312 tmc ft). “We require another 125 tmc ft for the dam to fill up,” said Nagarjunasagar dam chief engineer S. Suneel.

The Pulichintala dam, downstream Nagarjunasagar, is also getting water from the Musi. Against its full capacity of 46 tmc ft, Pulichintala has 14 tmc ft of water.

The Tungabhadra dam near Hospet in Karnataka had started getting good inflows of 21,000 cusecs from Friday, and had 85 tmc ft against full capacity of 100 tmc ft. If the dam releases water, it will reach Srisailam and Rayalaseema.

In north Telangana, heavy rains helped the Singur dam on the Manjeera fill up. It was releasing 22,000 cusecs to Nizamsagar in Nizamabad district. Nizamsagar needs another 12 tmc ft of water to fill up.

If Nizamsagar fills up, it will release water to the (Sriram Sagar) dam built across the Godavari. (Sriram Sagar) is getting water after 10 days, and there are expectations that it will fill up as well. The Vishnupuri dam in Maharashtra and Balagaon barrage are releasing about 40,000 cusecs of water to (Sriram Sagar). Against its full capacity of 90 tmc ft, (Sriram Sagar) on Saturday had 50 tmc ft water.