The inflows to the Tungabhadra Dam at Munirabad in Karnataka remained at 87,193 cusecs on Thursday evening, and the water released from 30 gates from the dam (1.36 lakh cusecs at 6 p.m.) was likely to reach the Sunkesula Barrage on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border by midnight.
The engineers lifted 10 gates of the Sunkesula Barrage, which has a storage capacity of 0.55 tmc ft. While 37,000 cusecs was being discharged from Sunkesula, 550 cusecs was being released through the KC Canal.
The inflows from the Tunga and the Bhadra rivers to the Tungabhadra Dam continued to be above 80,000 cusecs since Tuesday.
After 40 years, the Tungabhadra reservoir was full before the expected time.
At the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi, Chakrateertha, Purandara Dasa Mantapa, Rama Laxmana temple, and Salu Mantapa monuments were flooded on Thursday.
Due to heavy rains in the catchment areas, the Jurala project was also getting more than 1 lakh cusecs, and the officials were discharging 1,46,278 cusecs. The water will reach the Srisailam Dam in one day.
At the Srisailam Dam, there was 51.8 tmc ft water against the total storage capacity of 215.8 tmc ft, with an inflow of just 1 lakh cusecs.
The Tungabhadra Dam officials will release water into the Left Bank Low-Level Canal for ayacut from July 16, and it will reach Kurnool district by July 18, according to Kurnool Irrigation Superintendent Engineer P. Rajasekhar Reddy.
The dam at present has 98.420 tmc ft of live storage and the water level was at 1,631.150 feet at 6 p.m.
Water was released into the Right Bank High-Level Canal at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday, which would reach the Andhra Pradesh border (105.40 km) on Thursday night.
The Irrigation Department has placed an indent of 500 cusecs only as lining has not been done at the canal.
“We will slowly increase the amount of water flow in the canal once it stabilises,” said Anantapur HLC Superintendent Engineer Nayakanti Rajasekhar.
Proposals for the strengthening the weak spots in the High-Level Main Canal and the Link Canal are pending with the State government, and that leaves scope for breaches yet again this year when the flow increases from 500 cusecs to 2,000 cusecs in course of time.
The modernisation works were stopped with the contractors opting out.
