Despite the forecast of heavy rains in the upstream and local catchment areasof the Godavari Basin, there was some let-up in the flood to major projects. Inflows to all major projects receded on Sunday although, for the past week, it has ensured ample water storage for the first crop.
However, the position of projects in the Krishna Basin still appears to be uncertain as reservoirs in the immediate upstream in Karnataka have a flood cushion of about 175 tmc ft as of Sunday night. The flood to Almatti was around 1.2 lakh cusecs and that to Tungabhadra was about 56,000 cusecs.
Based on the IMD forecast, the Central Water Commission (CWC) has predicted a rise in water levels in the Upper Krishna Basin in Karnataka with very heavy rainfall likely in the catchment areas. The CWC has predicted a rise in water levels in Krishna and its tributaries in the Upper Krishna Basin in Maharashtra too. Mahabaleshwar recorded over 15 cm of rainfall for the third day in a row till Sunday morning.
Flood to Jurala project, coming from Bhima and the local catchment areas, receded to 31,200 cusecs on Sunday night after reaching 42,000 cusec by noon. The flood, however, is allowing TS-Genco authorities to generate power in four units of the 6×39 megawatt hydel station there as also in similar number of units at 6×40 MW Lower Jurala hydel station.
In the Godavari Basin, flood has receded to 1,200 cusecs to Singur, whose storage has crossed 21.2/29.92 tmc ft, to 6,800 cusecs to Nizamsagar with storage up to 11.2/17.8 tmc ft and that to 15,800 cusecs to Sriramsagar with storage reaching 62.05/90.31 tmc ft. Flood to Kaddam has also receded to 7,600 cusecs and at Medigadda, it receded to 4.81 lakh cusecs.
Flood to Godavari Basin projects is expected to rise again as the IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in the local catchment areas of several tributaries and rivulets of Godavari.
