Rains in the catchment areas of Krishna and Godavari rivers due to the cyclonic circulation over south-west Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood over the last few days continue to get good inflows into all major projects in the State with many of them discharging surplus flood from their spillways.
According to the engineers of Irrigation Department, the current water year has been among the best in terms of flood days spread across July to October. In terms of discharge of surplus flood, nearly 5,800 tmc ft of Godavari water has already gone down into sea from Dowlaiswaram Barrage and nearly 900 tmc ft volume of flood let down from Prakasam Barrage till date.
“The spillway discharge of flood at Jurala has been for 62 days since July 13 when the crest gates were lifted for the first time this flood season. Similarly, spillway discharge of flood at Srisailam has been for 50 days at Srisailam since July 23, for 45 days at Nagarjunasagar since August 11 and for 66 days at Sriramsagar since July 10,” a flood monitoring official explained.
In the Godavari Basin, Sriramsagar was getting an inflow of about 30,000 cusecs and a similar volume of flood was being discharged including nearly 22,000 cusecs from 7 spillway gates and over 8,000 cusecs to canals which including release of another 4,000 cusecs to river with power generation. Water level in the reservoir was being maintained at full reservoir level (FRL) with capacity storage of 90.31 tmc ft.
In the downstream, Yellampally Barrage was getting a flood of over 71,000 cusecs and discharge was nearly 32,800 cusecs including 32,300 cusecs from 6 gates. Further downstream, the inflow at Medigadda Barrage was nearly 1.21 lakh cusecs and discharge was over 1.21 lakh cusecs from 35 gates.
In the Krishna Basin, Jurala was getting an inflow of about 83,000 cusecs and the discharge was nearly 89,000 cusecs including 45,150 cusecs from 11 spillway gates, 42,400 cusecs with power generation and the remaining volume to canals. At Srisailam in the downstream, the inflow was over 1.46 lakh cusecs including supplementation of over 30,000 cusecs from Tungabhadra and another 25,000 cusecs from local streams and rivulets.
The discharge of flood at Srisailam was over 1.35 lakh cusecs including 56,000 cusecs from two spillway gates, 66,500 cusecs with power generation by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the remaining volume to water drawal systems based on the reservoir. Storage in the reservoir was being maintained at 214.8 tmc ft against its capacity of 215.8 tmc ft.
At Nagarjunasagar in the downstream, the inflow was nearly 1.31 lakh cusecs and the discharge to river was over 1.13 lakh cusecs including 80,800 cusecs from 10 spillway gates and another 32,800 cusecs with power generation. Another 17,000 cusecs was being released to canals. Storage of water in the reservoir was 311.45 tmc ft against the capacity of 312.04 tmc ft.
