Srisailam gets heavy inflows, seven crest gates opened

ANANTAPUR: Heavy inflows from upstream areas led to heavy inflows into Srisailam dam forcing lifting of seven crest gates to a height of 10 ft. About 2.18 lakh cusecs of inflows was recorded on Friday following which dam authorities released 2.26 lakh cusecs downstream, including power generation from both left and right thermal generating units. More than 58, 000 cusecs are being used for power generation in the Srisailam reservoir.

With the gates opened, the Srisailam dam attracted tourists who had come to the temple. There was a massive flow of tourists witnessed at the dam site.

Gross storage capacity of Srisailam reservoir had reached 99.93 per cent with the current storage of 215.66TMC ft as against the gross storage of 215.81 TMC ft. The Srisailam reservoir gets constant heavy inflows of 1,99,750 cusecs from upstream parts of Krishna basin.

Sources said the inflows increased 80,000 cusecs in a couple of days after water was continuously discharged to the extent of 1.27 lakh cusecs and 39, 000 cusecs from the Jurala project.

Almatti reservoir across Krishna river recorded 95.88 per cent of gross storage capacity with 124.38 TMC ft followed by 87,000 cusecs of inflows and 42, 000 cusecs of outflows towards downstream areas. Narayanpur dam released 40,800 cusecs of outflows after getting 107.03 TMC ft of water. Similarly, Tungabhadra Board maintained at 100.78 TMC ft with 99.92 per cent storage in the dam and 31,174 cusecs of water being released as outflows into the TB river.

However, Nagarjunasagar dam had 2.31 lakh inflows from Srisailam and other sources. It is being maintained with 311.45 TMC ft and 2.31 lakh cusecs was outflows on Friday.

After keeping the seven gates open till Friday afternoon, officials restricted it to four gates by evening following decrease in inflows from upstreams.