Heavy inflows double water at Sriramsagar

NIZAMABAD: Unprecedented heavy rainfall in Nizamabad, Kamareddy and Nirmal districts on Sunday brought copious inflows into the Sriramsagar project in Nizamabad district. The catchment area of the dam received 20 cm of rainfall, which resulted in a massive quantity of water flowing into the dam, which is the lifeline of the state.

At one stage, on Monday afternoon, the flow rate of water touched 1.9 lakh cusecs (cubic feet per second) before the flow eased up. An official said that within 36 hours, the quantum of water stored in the dam doubled.

From 9 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) on Sunday morning, the storage went up to 18 tmc ft on Monday evening. Another one tmc ft of water is expected by Tuesday.

Inflows (or flow rate) on Monday at 10.10 am was 39,445 cusecs, but within two hours that touched 1,71,874 cusecs and at 3 pm it touched 1.90 lakh cusecs. The flow rate started decreasing after that. At 5 pm the inflow had reduced to 1.16 lakh cusecs. As a result, the Sriramsagar project now has 18.473 tmc ft of water as against its full storage capacity of 90.313 tmc ft.

Added to the inflows from the local catchment area, Maharashtra contributed 50,000 cusecs to Sriramsagar as the flood-gates of the Balegaon project were opened, releasing surplus flows into Sriramsagar.

Due to the long dry spell, the farming community in several districts in northern parts of Telangana state are a worried lot. Thanks to timely rainfall in some districts crops irrigated by the Nizamsagar, Sriramsagar, Kadem and other projects have been saved, and farmers hope the rain will continue.