Godavari receives heavy inflows of water while Krishna's flows shortfall

Hyderabad: Irrigation projects in Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh are facing mixed fortunes, with those on the Godavari receiving healthy inflows and those on the Krishna in deficit. On the Krishna, Srisailam has 9 tmc ft of water more than what it held on the same day last year, and Nagarjunasagar 16 tmc ft.

However, there is a long way to go for these projects to fill up. Srisailam has a meagre 13 per cent of its full capacity of 215.81 tmc ft. Nagarjunasagar has 133.37 tmc ft against its total capacity of 312.05 tmc ft. A total of 48,037 cusecs of inflows was recorded in the Krishna basin during the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on Sunday. The Godavari basin received 52,442 cusecs inflows in the same period. Flood water touched the pushkar ghats steps at Kaleshwaram and the Godavari was flowing at 20 feet at Bhadrachalam on Sunday evening.

Water at the Sriramsagar project was at 1,058 ft against the full level of 1,091 ft, and its reservoir held 11.6 tmc ft. Mr B. Hariram, engineer-in-chief at the Kaleshwaram project, said: “The unflows are increasing. The Kaleshwaram project received 2.17 lakh cusecs this morning at Medigadda barrage and at 6.30 pm, it was 2.6 lakh cusecs.” Mr B. Hariram said fourteen gates on the Babli project were opened a week ago and the state has 0.5 tmc ft so far. The gates will remain open till October. “We are yet to receive good inflows from Maharashtra, which has built many barrages on the Godavari,” he said.

Coal production at the RKP and KK-2 open cast mines in Mandamarri division which have been flooded. Active to vigorous monsoon conditions were seen over Maharashtra and in isolated pockets of Karnataka in the last 24 hours. Moderate to heavy rains were recorded in these regions, according to skymetweather.com. This is expected to increase further inflows into the projects in Telangana. The Met department forecasts another low pressure on July 13 in south-east Bay of Bengal, which could cause more rainfall. The Telangana state irrigation ministry on Sunday directed engineers at all projects to be alert following the forecast of heavy rain, put out by the IMD.