Flood alert sounded as Tungabhadra dam gates opened

Mahbubnagar: With heavy inflows into the Tungabhadra dam located in Karnataka, the officials have opened the 33 sluice gates and released water downstream, that flows across the borders of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and finally enters into Telangana in Gadwal district at Alampur to meet the Krishna River.

Because of the heavy outflow from the sluice gates of Tungabhadra dam, Joint Collector of Jogulamba Gadwal Venugopal has given clear instructions and alerted the revenue officials to be get ready for any eventuality in case of heavy outbreak of floods in the villages coming under Alampur, Leeja, Rajouli, Manavapadu and Undavelli mandals in the district.

“With the Karnataka government opened all the 33 gates of Tungabhadra dam and releasing water into the downstream areas; we have alerted all the tahasildars of the respective mandals to be ready in case of outbreak of floods,” informed Joint Collector Venugopal.

“Accordingly they have also been instructed to conduct meetings with the farmers and villagers of all the concerned mandals so that they can take precautionary measures to avoid any kind of untoward incidents,” he added.

Earlier in 2009, when the Tungabhadra river was in spate, the entire city of Kurnool which is located on its banks was inundated killing hundreds. The villages in Gadwal, Nagarkurnool districts were also badly affected during the 2009 floods.

In order to avoid such a situation, the district administration of Gadwal and Nagarkurnool have sounded alert to all the low lying areas of the above said mandals and directed to take precautionary measures so that there is not large scale damage caused due to over flooding of the river.