5.16 lakh cusec of water released

Hyderabad, Aug 3: For the first time this Monsoon Season, a whopping 5.16 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from the Srisailam Reservoir in Andhra Pradesh.

The Srisailam Reservoir received over 4.20 lakh cusecs due to discharge of 2.69 lakh cusecs and 2.55 lakh cusecs by Karnataka from the nearly full Almatti and Narayanpur Dams.

The authorities in Andhra Pradesh brought down the level in the Srisailam Dam to 879 feet, just six feet short of the full capacity, official sources said.

Anticipating more releases from the upper riparian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka due to incessant rainfall, the authorites lifted seven crest gates to discharge over 5.16 lakh cusecs of water downstream.

Over 11,000 cusecs was released through the Pothireddipadu Head Regulator for the Rayalaseema region.

As water level in the Nagarjunasagar Reservoir went up 571.30 feet with an inflow of 3.15 lakh cusecs, the authorities discharged 56,008 cusecs.

The combined storage in the reservoirs in the Krishna Basin in the state rose to over 700 tmc ft raising hopes of good khariff crop on 45 lakh acre in the Krishna Delta Region and Nagarjunasagar Command areas.

Bringing down the level to 1033.51 feet in Jurala, the entry point of River Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, the water release was increased to over 3.84 lakh cusecs.

Maintaining the level at 12 feet in the Prakasam Barrage, the authorities released 9,267 cusecs into the Eastern Main Canal, 6,034 cusecs into Western Main Canal and 200 cusecs into the Guntur Channel.

At Tungabadra, the storage rose to 103.55 tmc ft with an inflow of 32,889 cusecs. The discharge was maintained at 36,383 cusecs.

UNI