Chennai: Andhra Pradesh has released water from the Krishna River to meet the requirements of residents in Chennai. With Kandaleru reservoir receiving a steady inflow, Krishna water was released on Wednesday morning. In a simple function, Telugu Ganga Project (TGP) Chief Engineer R. Muralinath Reddy released water from Kandeluru.
Following incessant rainfall, the storage in the reservoir went up to 12.28 tmcft on Tuesday. Officials from Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department (WRD) and Chennai Metrowater were also present on the occasion.
According to sources, AP government decided to release 500 cusecs of water initially and gradually, it will go upto 2,000 cusecs. Water would reach Poondi reservoir, which is the storage point of Krishna water through Kandaleru Poondi canal, within a week. The Kandaleru reservoir has total storage capacity of 12.8 thousand million cubic feet. The water release comes in the wake of Tamil Nadu Ministers SP Velumani and D Jayakumar meeting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in Amaravati recently and handing over a letter on behalf of Chief Minister K Palaniswami, requesting immediate release of
drinking water through the Telugu Ganga canal.
Following the meeting, Reddy directed the water resources department authorities in AP to ensure water was released immediately. As per the agreement between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the former normally releases at least two tmc ft of water to meet Chennai's drinking water needs, sources said.
