ANANTAPUR: The Srisailam reservoir touched the 874ft water level with 157tmc-ft of water on Tuesday due to constant heavy inflows of 3.01 lakh cusecs into the dam from upstream sources of Jurala, Sunkesula and Tungabhadra.
The dam authorities assess that the reservoir may get filled with full storage capacity soon.
The outflows of 31784 cusecs were directed downstream for Telangana state’s power generation while the backwaters of Srisailam were also released at the Pothireddypadu Head regulator with 2500 cusecs of initial discharge.
Irrigation officials said the outflow will be increased gradually towards allocated sources in the Rayalaseema areas.
The Srisailam dam authorities have also released about 2500 cusecs towards the Kalwakurthy project in Telangana. They said Pothireddypadu got water a week earlier than last year because of the heavy floods in upstream parts of Krishna basin.
In addition, Krishna backwater was released through Handri Neeva Sujala Shravanthi irrigation and drinking project of Rayalaseema on Tuesday.
The lift irrigation system motors were switched on at Malyala in Nandyal district, the initial point of the HNSS project closer to the Srisailam backwaters.
The Velugodu reservoir will be filled with the Srisailam Right Branch Canal (SRBC) to provide water for irrigation and drinking purposes under SRBC and the Telugu Ganga canal dependent areas.
With heavy outflows from Jurala reservoir into Srisailam, the historic Sangameshwara temple was inundated due to Krishna floodwaters on Monday. The sanctum sanctorum of the temple has also disappeared. Hence, devotees offer poojas at Upper Umamaheswara Temple for the past eight months.
Sources recalled that the temple was submerged in July 25 last year, but it happened a week in advance this time.
In view of the heavy flows in Srisailam, the water level was increasing and it is likely to get full storage capacity of 215tmc-ft of water in a few days.
The Alamatti dam in Karnataka also reached more than 75 per cent of its water storage level and 1.25 lakh cusecs of water was being released towards Narayanpur dam, finally to reach Srisailam.
