With the inflows into Almatti crossing the two lakh cusec mark, the authorities opened a few gates to release 33,000 cusecs on Saturday morning. The releases from the dam are likely to be increased to one lakh by night.
According to the formula it would take a steady inflow of 11,574 cusecs for an entire day to fill a tank with a capacity of one tmcft and 2,31,480 cusecs to fill a tank with the capacity of 20 tmcft.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government is getting ready to lift flood water from the foreshore of Srisailam to the Handri-Neeva Srujala Sravanti (HNSS) project.
While Almatti reservoir had the capacity to hold another 25 tmcft on Saturday morning, the flood cushion dropped to 15 tmcft by night and the authorities would be required to increase the discharge to one lakh cusecs or more.
The water released to the down stream would reach Srisailam after the reservoirs of Narayanapur and Jurala were filled.
The Tungabhadra reservoir, which received 16,000 cusecs began power generation releasing 1,050 cusecs to the downstream project of Srisailam. Irrigation experts are expecting the inflows to Tungabhadra also improve shortly, going by the heavy rain in the Western Ghats.
Minister’s directive
Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has put the Irrigation chiefs of Srisailam and Kurnool district on alert. Checking with them whether the gates of Srisailam project functioned properly, he told them that they should prepare to lift flood water to the HNSS project conceived to provide water for the irrigation of over six lakh acres in Rayalaseema. The Minister said that he would inspect the entire 300 km stretch of canals of the project in Rayalaseema next week in preparation for release of water.
The pumping of Srisailam water to HNSS is part of the promise made by the Telugu Desam Party when it proposed the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme as part of the slogan ‘Pattiseema for Rayalaseema’. With the Godavari water reaching the Krishna River from Pattiseema LI scheme, the Andhra Pradesh government is preparing to provide water to the drought-prone Rayalaseema districts of Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur, and Kurnool.
