Hyderabad: Two crest gates of the Nagarjunasagar dam were lifted for three hours to release 15,000 cusecs of water on Sunday. This was the first time since September 2014 the gates were lifted as the water level almost reached full capacity.
The dam never attained full level later due to deficient rainfall and poor inflows in Krishna basin since then.
People thronged the dam to have a glimpse of the water gushing out of the crest gates which has become a rare sight these days.
Telangana Rashtra Rythu Samanvaya Samithi president and Nalgonda MP Gutha Sukender Reddy pressed the switch to lift the gates.
Officials decided to close the two crest gates at 12.15 pm after inflows into the project decreased from 1.4 lakh cuses to 72,900 cuses by mid-day.
Mr Reddy said though Nalgonda district witnessed deficit rainfall, the water level at Nagarjunasagar nearly reached its full storage capacity. This would help the people, particularly farmers, in a big way.
Sriram Sagar Project on the Godavari and Srisaliam, Jurala and Nagarjunasagar had got water and this would benefit the two Telugu states.
Irrigation officials asked the people living in downstream areas to be alert with release of water downstream.
The current water level in Nagarjuanasagar was 586.2 ft as against the full reservoir level of 590 ft. The present water storage was 301.35 tmc ft against capacity of 314 tmc ft.
