Vijayawada: After considerable depletion, the water levels in Srisailam reservoir have started rising, thereby enabling Telangana government to continue to generate one unit of hydroelectric power as it is releasing water from Jurala project since Friday.
As TS has been drawing water from Srisailam reservoir since June 1, the water level started dipping gradually and touched its lowest of 807 ft against the minimum drawdown level of 805 ft. AP water resources authorities assumed that once the water level dips further, the neighbouring state may stop power generation, which was reduced to one unit from the earlier five units.
However, there has been some good news following rains in the catchment areas of Krishna River upstream in parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, which have ensure that the Jurala project receives good inflows. To utilise such water, the TS government started power generation from Jurala project and began releasing utilised water for power generation downstream to the tune of 38,364 cusecs into the Srisailam project. This has increased the water levels in Srisailam reservoir.
AP water resources authorities say that if Jurala dam gets filled to its capacity, the TS government may have to release such water downstream into Krishna River by lifting its spillway gates. However, it started power generation to utilise such water and releasing utilised water downstream. At present, Jurala project has 1,043.90 ft water level with current storage of 8.97 tmc ft of water (92.86%) against gross capacity at FRL of 9.66 tmc ft of water with inflow of 60,500 cusecs and outflow of 38,671 cruces of water.
Krishna river upstream projects like Almatti and Narayanapur located in Karnataka received good inflows. The current water level at Almatti reservoir is 1,698.69 ft with current storage of 98.09 tmc ft of water (75.62%) against gross capacity at FRL of 129.72 tmc ft of water. Narayanpur reservoir shows current water level at 1,612.57 ft with current storage of 34.30 tmc ft (91.13%) against gross capacity at FRL of 37.64 tmc ft of water.
Water resources authorities from the state maintain that though TS government is supposed to draw water from Srisailam reservoir up to minimum drawdown level at 834 ft for power generation, it drew water even after it dipped to a new-low. Meanwhile, as water levels have started rising in the reservoir, TS may continue to generate power and may press into service the remaining units out of a total five.
Srisailam Dam superintendent engineer S. Venkata Ramanaiah said, “Water level in Srisailam reservoir is rising slowly as the TS government is releasing water from the Jurala project. At present, the TS government is drawing water from Srisailam reservoir to operate only one unit to generate power.”
On the other hand, the TS government stopped power generation from its Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala projects a few days ago and the same status remained on Saturday.
KRMB has recently asked it to stop power generation from all three projects-Srisailam, Nagarjuanasagar and Pulichinthala.
