Widespread rains in many districts

Hyderabad: Rains continued to lash several parts of Telangana on Sunday. Though rains have not been severe, they were, however widespread, which according to agriculture experts, would help crops. Though life has been affected in towns and villages, by and large rains have brought cheers to the people.

The Met department said under the influence of the cyclonic circulation over the northwest Bay of Bengal off West Bengal­ Odisha coasts, a low pressure area has formed over the northwest Bay of Bengal. This might become marked during the next 24 hours.

The Met department predicted heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in Adilabad, Komarambhim-Asifabad, Mancherial, Jagityal, Rajanna-Sircilla, Peddapalli, Karimnagar, Jaishankar-Bhoopalpalli, Warangal, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Mahabubabad, Khammam, Suryapet and Nirmal districts.  At Bhadrachalam, severity of flood has come down.

The level has dropped below 43 ft, prompting officials to withdraw the first flood warning. As the waters receded, the bathing ghats of Bhadrachalam Ram Temple which lay submerged came into view on Sunday evening.  

At Kadem, in the erstwhile Adilabad district, efforts are on to repair a gate which had bent to one side, resulting in a discharge of water at 5,000 cusecs after unexpected floods.  The officials hope to restore the gate within two days.

At Kinnerasani in Palvancha in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, five gates have been lifted with inflows picking up following rains in the river's catchment area. The discharge at the project is about 30,000 cusecs.

In Nizamabad, the Sriram Sagar Project is receiving huge inflows. As against full reservoir level (FRL) of 1091 ft, the water level on Sunday was 1071 ft. As against full capacity of 90 tmcft, at present the storage is 32.1 tmcft. Inflows into the reservoir were 16,450 cusecs. At Srisailam, as inflows are quite significant water is being released into left canal that feeds Telangana.