River Krishna in spate, flood warning issued

Bangalore, Aug 12 (UNI) The Krishna river, which was in spate, threatened to inundate fresh areas in North Karnataka following heavy discharge from reservoirs in Maharashtra even as rain continued to cause floods in other parts of the state today.

The authorities sounded flood alerts along the river bed as 3.37 lakh cusecs of water was flowing in from Maharashtra to Krishna and its tributaries due to heavy rains in Sangli district.

Though rain had subsided in Belgaum district, heavy inflows from Maharashtra threatened to submerge fresh areas.

This had prompted irrigation authorities to discharge 2.50 lakh cusecs of water from Alamatti Reservoir across Krishna.

According to official sources four people lost their lives in the rains since last night. Three people were killed in Shimoga and one in Dakshina Kannada district.

Heavy rains continued to batter most of the places in Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Kodagu districts, while it gave some respite in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

In Belgaum, 23 roads and bridges were submerged as Krishna and its tributaries Hiranyakeshi, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Doodh Ganga were flowing above danger levels.

In Alamatti, the level rose to 518.5 m against the maximum level of 519 m. While the inflow had risen to 1.95 lakh cusecs, the outflow had been stepped up to 2.5 lakh. The water level in the downstream Narayanpur reservoir had also touched its maximum and the officials had decided to open all 20 crest gates to release a whopping 2.80 lakh cusecs of water into Andhra Pradesh.

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