Pulichintala Starts Getting Water From Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

 Vijayawada: The Pulichintala project started receiving Krishna water from the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam as Telangana lifted the dam's gates Monday morning.

The AP water resources department said the dam’s 16 of the 26 gates were lifted by five feet at 6pm, releasing 1.18 lakh cusecs of water towards the Pulichintala project.

The Pulichintala project started receiving the water between 10pm on Monday till 12am on Tuesday. By Thursday night, the project would receive water up to the brim at 45.7tmc-ft. The project was already carrying 7tmc-ft of water.

Water resources officials said, based on the inflow of water from Srisailam Dam into Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, they would fix the number of gates and decide on their height to be lifted. These would vary from time to time and the quantum inflow into the Pulichintala project varies accordingly.

The Pulichintala project authorities have carried out a preparatory exercise and noticed that all the 24 gates were functioning normally. As the project is expected to receive water to its maximum capacity, they would lift the gates to release surplus water downstream into the Prakasam barrage.

The Pulichintala project has an ayacut of nearly 13 lakh acres located in parts of Krishna, NTR, Bapatla and Gunturu. As the project receives water, the authorities will release it for cultivation of crops during the kharif season. At present, they are releasing 15,000 cusecs of water for cultivation.

Pulichintala project superintendent engineer Srirama Krishna said, “We are expecting the project to be filled with water in three days and would release water downstream towards Prakasam barrage. It takes 10 to 12 hours for water from Nagarjuna Sagar Dam to reach the Pulichintala project.”