Another 350 tmc ft water needed to fill AP, TS reservoirs

Vijayawada: There is a shortage of 350 tmcft water to fill the reservoirs in the Krishna basin in the two Telugu states Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The water level is still low in Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Dr KL Rao Pulichintala projects in the two States though the reservoirs of upstream projects are discharging huge inflows during the last weekdays.

On Tuesday, there were inflows up to 2.6 lakh cusecs from upstream projects into Srisailam. As per the trends, if the flood continues for the next one week, then only the reservoirs may reach full storage capacity.

As many as 3.16 lakh cusecs of water was released from Almatti project on Tuesday night. Fortunately, 2.8 lakh cusecs of water is flowing into Almatti from upstream areas.

Likewise, the water level at Narayanpur Project stood at 27.25 tmcft as against its total storage capcity of 37.64 tmcft. The project is receiving inflows of 3.18 lakh cusecs while it is releasing 3.05 lakh cusecs.

The two projects are located in Karnataka and are receiving huge inflows due to heavy rains in the catchment areas. Former Drainage Board Member Yerneni Nagendranath said that the water was utilised sufficiently for cultivation purpose in Karnataka under the purview of the two projects. He said that the upstream projects would release the water to downstream AP and Telangana, based on the inflows.

However, the water level in three important irrigation projects like Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala is still low. According to the officials, 126.66 tmcft water is available in Srisailam as against its full storage capacity of 215.807 tmcft.

Subsequently, Nagarjuna Sagar has only 127 tmcft as against its total storage capacity of 312 tmcft. Similarly, Dr KL Rao Pulichintala project is almost empty as against its storage capacity of 45 tmcft.

The Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects will get inflows if water reaches to full storage capacity in the Srisailam project. Since heavy rains are continuing in Maharashtra, the inflows may continue for some more days to projects in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Irrigation Assistant Engineer D Madusudana Rao said that the projects in AP and Telangana would get water up to full storage level, if inflows continue during the next week also.