The rising flood in Godavari river has resulted in the stoppage works on the Polavaram project, and the discharge was about 14.5 lakh cusecs. Due to heavy downpour in the upstream areas, the flood level is increasing.
Officials of the Central Water Commission (CWC) said the third warning had been issued at Bhadrachalam, with the water level touching 53.8 feet on Wednesday. The third warning level of 53 was recorded twice within 48 hours, the officials said.
Irrigation authorities, who were monitoring the flood situation at the project, said that inflows might rise between 18 lakh and 20 lakh cusecs by Thursday as there was a heavy rain prediction in Maharashtra and Telangana.
“With the officials discharging flood from Lakshmi Barrage and due to heavy downpour, flood level is rising and may increase further to danger level. We are releasing the water into the Bay of Bengal by opening all 48 gates,” Polavaram Project Chief Engineer B. Sudhakar Babu said.
“A team of expert engineers are monitoring the flood constantly. Instructions have been given to collect readings on an hourly basis. Engineers are monitoring the functioning of the radial gates and are checking the lower and upper cofferdams,” the Chief Engineer said.
Polavaram projects officials were coordinating with the CWC and Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage officials at Dowleswaram. The readings and the observations during the heavy discharge would be useful for any corrections and for future operations, Mr. Babu said.
Officials had been directed to check the flood banks, the inflows and the discharge constantly, the Chief Engineer added.
Eluru District Collector V. Prasanna Venkatesh said with the CWC officials sounding alert on the flood level rising further in the next 24 hours, an evacuation plan had been prepared in the district.
“Officers deployed on flood duty have been instructed to take all measures to prevent any untoward incident in the wake of the heavy rains and floods,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
