Krishna in spate; dams downstream to get huge inflows
The authorities sounded alert to the people living in low-lying areas along the course of the river and also on islands
MAHBUBNAGAR: With incessant rains in the catchment area of the Krishna river in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Srisailam reservoir is expected to receive huge inflows. About 3,00,000 cusecs of water would be let out from Narayanpur dam to the Jurala project. Consequently, 27 crest gates of Jurala have been lifted by evening on Friday as it received 1,60,000 cusecs of water from upper reaches and outflow was recorded as 1,90,000 cusecs. AN engineer at Jurala said, "We are expecting huge inflow from Narayanapur by midnight to early hours and cautiously monitoring the flood flow.”
A bulletin issued by the Central Water Commission warned of a rising flood trend at Almatti, Narayanpur, Jurala, Singatalur Barrage, Tungabhadra dam and Prakasham barrage.
Srisailam reservoir received 1,92,035 cusecs of water from Jurala on Friday evening out of which 1,68,869 cusecs were through spillway discharge while 23,166 cusecs were added to river stream from Jurala powerhouse. The full reservoir level at Srisailam is 849 feet against a total height of 885 feet and water storage is 77.895 tmc ft. Srisailam left bank GENCO power station utilised 31,786 cusecs for power generation and 1,600 cusecs went to Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation.
An engineer said Alamatti dam was receiving 1,52,222 cusecs in just one hour at 4 pm on Friday while the three-hour average was 1,43,519 cusecs. The outflow through gates was 2,57,500 cusecs while 42,500 cusecs came from the KPCL powerhouse. Present storage was 89.268 tmc ft while maximum storage at Alamatti dam was 123.08 tmc ft, the engineer said.
Following heavy rainfall in the catchment area of Krishna river upstream in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and also in Andhra Pradesh, water resources authorities are releasing nearly 1.13 lakh cusecs of water from Prakasam barrage by lifting its gates downstream into the sea on Friday.
Water level at the barrage reached 57.05 ft with current storage of 3.07 tmc ft of water (100 per cent) against the gross capacity at FRL of 3.07 tmc ft of water with inflow of 1,11,811 cusecs and outflow of 1,11,811 cusecs of water.
The water resources authorities said they had lifted 15 gates of the barrage to a height of three feet and 55 gates to a height of two feet to release water downstream. Out of the realised inflow of 1,15,311 cusecs of water, the authorities are discharging 1,13,750 cusecs into the sea while 1,561 cusecs of water is being supplied to the canals for cultivation of crops at 7.00 pm.
Meanwhile, the authorities sounded alert to the people living in low-lying areas along the course of the river and also on islands and advised them to stay safe.