Pulichintala fills to brim, discharge to increase today

Guntur: With rains occurring in the catchment areas for the past few days and increasing inflows from Nagarjuna Sagar, floodwater discharge from Pulichintala Project reservoir in Guntur district will increase from Monday onwards.

Due to power production in Pulichintala reservoir, the floodwater release from the reservoir started two weeks ago. Now, the discharge will increase further.

According to official sources, the capacity of the reservoir is 43.74 TMC. The reservoir is filled with the inflows and also due to rains in the catchment areas.

At present 6,000 cusecs of floodwater is being released from the reservoir. Due to increase of heavy inflows from the Nagarjunasagar, incessant rains in the catchment areas, water level in the reservoir is increasing for the last two days.

If the inflows continue into the reservoir, the project will reach the full capacity and discharge will be increased. The officials are planning to release 15,000 cusecs to 18,000 cusecs water on Sunday night. They are planning to release from 24,000 cusecs to 30,000 cusecs of floodwater from Monday. As a result villages and the low-lying colonies in the island villages will be inundated. The floodwater is to be released from the reservoir expected to reach Prakasam barrage within one day. The Irrigation department officials made it clear that this floodwater is not useful for sowing operations in the Krishna Western Delta region of Tenali division of Guntur district.

However, farmers have started direct sowing during kharif. The irrigation officials informed that this water is not useful for crops. Due to late kharif season, the farmers are not able to utilise the flood water released from Prakasam barrage. Paddy is the main crop in the Delta and it requires a lot of water. But, the monsoon delayed this year and raising nurseries and sowing is also delayed this kharif season.