Storage Falls Short of Telangana, AP Allocations From Krishna River
KRMB allocates 131 TMC to Telangana, 27 TMC to AP, but low storage at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar may hinder full utilisation
Hyderabad: The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has said that in the current 2024-25 water year, Telangana has the option of using 131 tmc feet of water from the Krishna river, while Andhra Pradesh can use 27 tmc feet, both part of the overall shares of the two states.
However, unless the two states choose to dip below the minimum draw-down levels (MDDL) at the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams, using these permitted allocations would not be possible. According to a letter from KRMB to the engineers-in-chief of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, water at the two dams total to just about 94 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) above the MDDL.
In her letter on Tuesday, the KRMB superintending engineer G. Varalakshmi Devi, said “The present available water as on 11-2-2025 at the Nagarjunasagar project considering the MDDL of 510 ft is 63.603 tmc feet and at Srisailam project considering the MDDL of 834 ft is 30.811 tmc feet.”
The KRMB arrived at these figures taking into account the water used by both states so far from the Krishna. While for the ongoing year, the total share of AP was 666.688 tmc ft, it has so far drawn 639.652 tmc ft, while for Telangana these numbers stand at 343.446 and 211.691 tmc ft.
In all, in a normal rain year, a total of 811 tmc ft of water is available in Krishna for the two states, of which AP gets 512 tmc ft and Telangana tmc ft. However, with good rains last year, and taking into consideration the excess water available in the river, the share of the two states rose this year, but in the existing 66:34 ratio that the KRMB has decided to stick to.
At full capacity, Nagarjunasagar can hold 312.035 tmc ft, and Srisailam 215.807. As on February 17, water at Nagarjunasagar stood at 538.1 feet, and 184.390 tmc ft, while at Srisailam it was 81.640 tmc ft at 850.7 feet, according to official data.
“Though it may sound alarming that less than the allocated shares are available, it is possible to draw water from below the MDDL and down to dead storage levels, but only for drinking water supply purposes. Whether this situation will arise, remains to be seen,” a Telangana irrigation department official said.
