Kothagudem/Kakinada: The Godavari crossed the 50-feet mark for the first time this season at Bhadrachalam at 8 pm on Sunday. The river is running two feet less than the third warning of 53 feet.
The river saw a sudden surge of water, taking the level from 48.5 feet at 1 pm, crossing the second warning mark of 48 feet, to 51 feet by 8 pm. Low lying areas were submerged in Burgumpahad mandal and paddy in 500 acres inundated.
Rains in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh caused flooding in the Pranahita, Indravati, Taliperu and Kinnerasani which join the Godavari. It is expected that the water level may be crossed the 53 feet by Monday morning.
About 12.10 lakh cusecs of water was flowing at Bhadrachalam by 8 pm. Heavy flow of water was witnessed at Kaleswaram and Medigadda.
Traffic between Bhadrachalam and Charla was Mangolu rivulet started flowing on the highway. Water from sluices inundated Vista Complex in Bhadrachalam. The officials are pumping out the water. The people of low-lying areas in Burgumpahad, Charla, Dummugudem, Aswapuram and Manuguru were asked to reach safe places. Control rooms were opened in Bhadrachalam sub-collectorate in Bhadrachalam and collector office in Kothagudem.
Meanwhile, the a first of its kind operation, a flood flow canal (FFC) has received water through reverse pumping from Rajeshwararaopet pump house to the Sriramsagar project. Engineering officials released around 1 tmc ft on the 94-km FFC. The aim is to fill up SRSP with 54 tmc of water through reverse pumping, the project has received around 30 tmc of water till Sunday.
On the Krishna river, the water level at the Srisailam dam is steadily rising. On Sunday evening, the water stood at 882 feet against the full reservoir level of 885 feet.
If the inflows continue, the dam will be filled for a second time this season.
The storage was recorded at 199.2737 tmc ft of water against the total storage capacity of 215 tmc ft.
Till Sunday evening, the dam was getting 2,53,791 cusecs of water from the Jurala and Sunkesula projects.
Srisailam dam superintendenting engineer Srinivas Reddy said the onflow from Jurala project on the Krishna river was measured at 1,66,935 cusecs. Another 86,856 cusecs of water wsa being received via the Sunkesula barrage on the Tungabhadra river.
Officials were drawing 98,414 cusecs of water including 69,484 cusecs for power generation at the hydel units run by AP and TS.
