Somasila reservoir receives huge inflows from Seema

Nellore: Somasila reservoir touched 72 tmc feet of water level on Wednesday, second time in a year and the officials sounded alert to downstream villages expecting threat with the floodwaters.

In last October the reservoir filled to brim and again the same situation was repeated with huge inflows of water from the upper catchment areas of Rayalaseema. Now, the officials are releasing 30,000 cusecs of water lifting 10 crest gates of the reservoir. On Wednesday, Telugu Ganga Chief Engineer C Harinarayana Reddy along with project SE Krishna Rao performed special pooja at the reservoir and released water lifting the crest gates.

Last year, the officials filled the huge water body with a record level of 77.78 tmc feet against the Full Reservoir Level of 77.988 tmc feet. It was a record during the past 30 years after the construction of reservoir. It is getting huge inflows from the upper catchment areas of Rayalaseema region due to heavy rains. Officials have also started releasing water to the Kandaleru reservoir through its North and South canals.

Chief engineer Harinarayana Reddy said the Somasila reservoir has been receiving inflows of 90,000 cusecs of water due to heavy rains in Rayalaseema region. They had started releasing water into River Penna maintaining the reservoir level of 73 tmc feet. He said they were diverting water to the Kandaleru reservoir and informed that they would maintain a water storage level of 77 tmc feet in Somasila in the coming days depending on the inflows.

Meanwhile, the district administration alerted villages close to the River Penna for avoiding any flood-related problems. Atmakur in-charge RDO G Suvarnamma instructed the revenue officials to monitor the situation in the villages along River Penna.

The RDO asked Tahasildar, Sub-Inspector, A.E Irrigation to form special teams in their jurisdiction to monitor the flood situation. Further, 70.565 tmc feet water stored during 2015-16 and 77.88 tmc feet in 2019.