Krishna waters flow to Jurala project

​Hyderabad: Almost after a month’s delay, Krishna waters entered Jurala project in Mahabubnagar district on Thursday, raising hopes of copious inflows into Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar before long.  

With the opening of flood gates at Almatti and Narayanapur in Karnataka having been opened, flood waters are racing into Jurala project. The inflow was 65,000 cusecs and the outflow 30,000 cusecs till Thursday evening. It is expected it will take at least four days to one week for water to reach Srisailam and then to Nagarjuna Sagar. 

At present, water level at Srisailam is below the MDDL (minimum draw down level) of 815 feet in the reservoir. The FRL (Full Reservoir Level) of the project is 885 feet with a total capacity of 215 TMC ft.  At present, only 30 TMC ft of water is available in the project. 

Water storage in Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir has come down to below the MDDL at 500 ft as against 590 feet at FRL. The two Telugu states are permitted to draw water from the projects only after water levels rise over the MDDL.    

The official figures said as against 1705 feet FRL, water level in Almatti reached to 1703 feet.  Water level in Jurala project has gone up to 6 TMC ft with steady inflows. The gross capacity of the project is 9.65 TMC ft.   The irrigation officials said that there was a month’s delay for water to flow into Jurala due to scanty rainfall in the upper riparian state. 

As a result, the farmers under Krishna delta preferred to sow rain fed crops instead going in for traditional water intensive paddy cultivation. Every year, the projects under Krishna receives water by June second or third week. This time, it was delayed by 30 days. 

Officials said that the irrigation engineers have been asked to monitor the flows from Jurala to other projects and make necessary arrangements for the release water to Nagarjuna Sagar left bank canal on priority basis.