Krishna Water To Reach Nagarjuna Sagar Dam In A Week
Farmers get ready to raise crops in 12 lakh acres as water gets released from Dam through right canal
Vijayawada:The Nagarjuna Sagar dam is awaiting the arrival of Krishna river water in a week or within 10 days from the Srisailam project.
This, after chief minister Chandrababu Naidu released the water from Srisailam by lifting four crest gates on Tuesday.
At present, the Srisailam project has 195.39 tmc-ft (90.54 per cent) of water against the gross capacity of 215.81 tmc-ft, with an inflow of 1.73 lakh cusecs from upstream and an outflow of 87,897 cusecs.
Water authorities say that if the same quantity of water gets released from the Srisailam project, the Nagarjuna Sagar dam will have that much inflow to fill the dam to its full capacity in the next few days. At present, the dam has 168.73 tmc-ft of water (54.07 per cent) against the gross capacity of 312.05 tmc-ft.
As the Nagarjuna Sagar dam is located next to the Srisailam project along the course of River Krishna, the quantity of water that gets released from it would end up in the Nagarjuna Sagar dam. If around 10 tmc-ft of water gets released from the Srisailam project per day, it may take more than 10 days to reach the NS dam.
Once the water level in the Nagarjuna Sagar dam reaches a comfortable level, officials would start releasing water through the right canal, which reaches parts of Krishna, Palnadu, Guntur and Prakasam districts in AP. This water would be supplied to farms for cultivation of crops during the Kharif season.
There are about 12 lakh acres of farms in the command area.
Meanwhile, the water department is doing a final inspection of the right canal, namely its flood banks, locks, gates, sluices etc to ensure free flow of water even to the tail-end areas of the canal. This would help farmers to start the season’s cultivation.
The agriculture authorities have advised the farmers to get their farms ready for sowings and to raise crops, mainly paddy, in the four districts.
In Prakasam district, farmers expect release of water from Nagarjuna Sagar dam after August 15. The water normally reached them by the last week of August or first week of September. However, this season, they may get water a bit early.
The district's agriculture joint director Srinivasa Rao said, “If the water is available, the farmers will raise paddy. If not, they would go for red gram, pulses and other varieties of crops based on rainfall and some amount of water from the canal. Nearly 40,000 acres of farms are falling under NSP in the district.”
