22 crest gates opened at Nagarjuna Sagar, additional gates on standby

Irrigation authorities are discharging over three lakh cusecs from Nagarjuna Sagar Project

Hyderabad: Maintaining a permissible buffer for operational flexibility in handling the varying inflows being received from upstream projects, Irrigation authorities are discharging over three lakh cusecs from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project from all its outlets.

As many as 22 of its 26 crest gates were lifted by Tuesday noon. Even the last four gates may be opened if the situation warrants anytime tonight, according to officials.

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The present storage of the project is being maintained at 299 TMC as against the gross storage capacity of the project of 312 TMC.

Keeping a flood cushion of 10 to 12 TMC for such a massive project would help in managing the impact of unexpected rainfall in the upstream catchment adding to the flood flow in the river in a big way, officials said.

The reservoir level is being maintained at 585 feet as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 590 feet. While the overall inflows are in the range of 3.54 lakh cusecs, the project has been letting out over 3.14 lakh cusecs as the combined outflow.