Telangana: 22 crest gates of Nagarjuna Sagar opened to release floodwater

Hyderabad : With heavy inflows continuing from upstream, 12 more crest gates of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) across Krishna River in Telangana were lifted to release water downstream.

The irrigation department officials decided to open more gates as the water level almost touched Full Reservoir Level (FRL) following heavy inflows from the Srisailam project and other areas upstream.

Nalgonda district Collector Narayan Reddy and Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) chief engineer Nageswara Rao initially opened three gates on Monday. As the inflows increased, seven more gates were lifted later.

With the inflows reaching 3.55 lakh cusecs on Monday night, the officials opened more gates. A total of 22 gates have been lifted up to five feet to release the water downstream.

As many as 1.96 lakh cusecs water is being released for power generation and for left and right canals, officials said on Tuesday.

The inflow into NSP on Tuesday was 3.54 lakh cusecs while the outflow was 3.14 lakh cusecs. The present water level in the reservoir is 585.40 feet while the full reservoir level is 590 feet.

The NSP has storage of 298.58 TMC against its full capacity of 312.5 TMC.

The gates of NSP, one of the major dams in the country, have been opened after a gap of two years.

Heavy rains in the catchment area and the massive inflows from upstream, brought to an end a year-long crop holiday and water scarcity in NSP’s vast ayacut comprising 18 lakh acres in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Before lifting the crest gates, the officials in coordination with the district administration sounded an alert to those residing in the areas downstream and advised them to exercise more caution before entering the river.

Villages along the river in Nalgonda district of Telangana and Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh were already put on alert and fishermen were advised not to venture into the river.

Meanwhile, the Pulichthe Intala project downstream is also receiving huge inflows following the lifting of the gates of NSP. The water level in the project located in Andhra Pradesh has reached 142.71 feet against an FRL of 175 feet.

The inflow into the project was 74,443 cusecs while the outflow was 25,676 cusecs. The storage in Pulichintala stands at 10.65 TMC against its full capacity of 45.77 TMC.

Meanwhile, the Sriram Sagar project across the Godavari River in Telangana’s Nizamabad district is also receiving huge inflows from upstream.

The water level in the project on Tuesday afternoon was 1080.30 feet against an FRL of 1,091 feet. While the total capacity of Sriram Sagar is 80.5 TMC total, the water storage on Tuesday was 45.75 TMC.