KURNOOL: With the storage at Srisailam going to reach 137 tmc ft, the talk turned to releasing water for downstream projects. Besides, there was the prospect of getting sufficient water in the Krishna to fill up the reservoir.
At 8 pm, the dam held 136.9330 tmc ft (full storage 215.807 tmc ft). At the same time on Monday, the dam had 119 tmc ft of water, indicating an inflow of 18 tmc ft in a 24-hour period. Water stood at 868.90 ft against the reservoir level of 885 feet.
The Central Water Commission in a communiqué said there was more water coming in and advised authorities to be wary. The Almatti outflow was recorded at 4 lakh cusecs, the highest after the 2009 floods at Kurnool. Narayanpur, the last dam before Telangana, was discharging 3,82,000 cusecs.
In Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he has written to his Karnataka counterpart B.S. Yediyurappa to increase the discharge of water from Almatti dam on the Krishna river so as to ease the flood situation in Sangli. Flooding at Sangli and at Kolhapur have affected lakhs of people and destroyed the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway. The flood in Kolhapur has been caused by the Krishna at the Koyna dam.
In another development, officials commenced power generation from the hydel units. The left bank project can generate 900 MW and the right bank 770 MW.
