Major Krishna Basin Irrigation Projects Filling Up After Many Years
All the water released from upstream Krishna basin reaches Srisailam and thereafter Nagarjunasagar dams: Reports
ANANTAPUR: Major irrigation projects under the Krishna basin are poised to reach their full storage capacity for the first time after many years, following heavy floods in upstream areas of the river due to an early monsoon.
Krishna basin has a total capacity of 589.67 TMC feet of water. 434.69 TMC feet of water has already reached into the projects during the present season, reaching 73 per cent storage capacity. It had been only 164.21 TMC feet or 27.85 per cent capacity around the same time during the last year.
Similarly, major projects, which have total 865.64 TMC feet storage capacity, have acquired 550 TMC feet, reaching 63.58 per cent of the storage capacity.
Though Tungabhadra Dam has a storage capacity of 105 TMC feet, it can store only 78 TMC feet keeping in view the dam’s safety. Thus, TB Board authorities are releasing the excess water into the dependent canals of HLMC and LLC, apart from the river. Further, only 200 cusecs of water is being gradually increased towards AP, as the bunds of canals are not strong.
On Saturday, the TB Dam received 46,579 cusecs of inflows while 38 thousand cusecs have been the outflows. Water is flowing continuously from Hampi towards the Mantralayam in Kurnool district.
The upstream Almatti Reservoir is discharging 93,370 cusecs of water following constant inflows. As a result, 10 crest gates of the Sunkesula Reservoir have been lifted near Rajoli area, releasing 39,400 cusecs of water towards the downstream Srisailam Reservoir. Sunkesula Reservoir’s gross capacity is 292 metres. Authorities are maintaining the water level at 290.50 metres.
All the water released from upstream Krishna basin reaches Srisailam and thereafter Nagarjunasagar dams. On Saturday, water level in Srisailam Dam reached 203.43 TMC feet, which is 94.26 per cent of the capacity. Current water level at Srisailam is 882.80 feet, against the full reservoir level of 885 feet.
Official sources said there is 1.53 lakh cusecs of inflow at Srisailam, with the outflow being 1.11 lakh cusecs. As a result, the level of water in Nagarjunasagar project has reached 204 TMC feet, which is 65 per cent of the total capacity.
