Hyderabad: In yet more good news for the two Telugu states, there has been 60 cm rain in the Mahabaleswar region of Maharashtra, the birthplace of Krishna river, over the last four days. Following this, the Almatti and Narayanpur dams in Karnataka were getting water at the rate of 56,000 cusecs per day, which was being released downstream.
According to Central Water Commission officials, over 1 lakh cusecs of water was expected to reach the Jurala project in TS from the Krishna and from its tributary Bheema over four to five days. Since Jurala is full, the water will be released to Srisailam, which can accommodate another 56 tmc ft.
Nagarjunasagar is all but empty, and can take in 174 tmc ft of water. “We expect another 60 to 75 TMC ft of water to reach Jurala in the coming days that will be useful for Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar,” an official said.
The heavy rain in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts resulted in the Musi getting a lot of water which reached Pulichintala dam on the Krishna. At 6 pm on Thursday, Pulichintala officials were releasing 2.8 lakh cusecs into the Krishna by opening 10 crest gates.
According to Pulichintala superintendent engineer M. Venkata Ramana, the dam already holds 30 tmc ft of water, which was the limit agreed upon by both states. All the excess water the dam receives will be released downstream.
This water will reach Prakasam barrage at Vijayawada in 12 to 18 hours. Anticipating huge inflows, officials at the barrage which can hold 3 tmc ft of water, released 14,000 cusecs at 5 pm. This water will go to the Bay of Bengal.
Besides, rainwater from Warangal and Khammam areas districts is emptying into the Munnair and Palair tributaries of the Krishna, and will reach the Prakasam barrage.
“By Friday morning major floodwater will be released from Prakasam barrage into the sea,” an official said.
In a related development, Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme officials have closed pumping of Godavari waters into the Prakasam barrage citing lack of demand.
