Six Gates of Tungabhadra Dam Opened, Alert Issued Downstream
AP irrigation wing of TB High Level Main Canal is unable to store excess water from the Tungabhadra Dam, as existing storage points like Penna Ahobilam Reservoir and summer storage tanks are already full: Sources
ANANTAPUR: Authorities have opened six gates of the Tungabhadra Dam (TB) following constant inflows from upstream regions, thereby releasing 14,136 cusecs into the Tungabhadra River on Wednesday evening.
The development comes as experts have warned TD dam authorities not to store more than 78 TMC feet of water, though the dam’s actual capacity is 105 TMC feet. The warning comes as the crest gates of the dam are weak.
Due to heavy inflows during the past few days, water level in the Tungabhadra Dam had reached 77.14 TMC feet. On Wednesday inflows reached 32,767 cusecs. As a result, Tungabhadra dam authorities lifted six crest gates to a height of two feet, with each gate releasing 2,356 cusecs of water into the river.
Ahead of releasing the water, the dam authorities alerted people downstream including Mantralayam in Kurnool district.
Sources said the AP irrigation wing of TB High Level Main Canal is unable to store excess water from the Tungabhadra Dam, as existing storage points like Penna Ahobilam Reservoir and summer storage tanks are already full.
Further, sources said the Handri Neeva Sujala Shravanthi and Galeru Nagari Sujala Shravanthi projects will soon have water from Srisailam backwaters, as heavy inflows have been reported from Almatti reservoir of Krishna River towards Srisailam.