Babli gates in Maharashtra opened, but holds no big hope 

Babli project in Maharashtra has been left with very little water to draw from to meet the irrigation needs in Telangana

Hyderabad: The Babli project in Maharashtra has been left with very little water to draw from to meet the irrigation needs in Telangana.

The project gates were lifted on Saturday in the presence of Irrigation officials of both Telangana and Maharashtra, but poor storage level in the project may not support the releases for more than a day, according to officials.

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As per the directives of the Supreme Court, the project gates should be lifted on July 1 every year and should be kept open till October 28 letting water flow into the Sriram Sagar Project in the State.

However, Babli has ceased to receive inflows from the river. All the Godavari basin projects above Babli in Maharashtra were almost empty and they hold no hope.

“Not much can be expected from the Maharashtra end to meet our irrigation needs till the catchment receives sufficient rainfall,” Engineer in Chief (Irrigation) K Sudhakar Reddy said.

Some 500 cusecs of water was let off from the Babli project in the day by opening its gates and it will take time to reach Sriram Sagar project.

No big inflows were received into Sriram Sagar project too even a month after the start of the new irrigation year. The storage level in Sriram Sagar Project is being maintained at 20.07 TMC as against gross storage of 90.31 TMC. Both inflows into the project and outflows were in the order of little over 500 cusecs.

Inflows start from Pranahita

Meanwhile, the Medigadda project has started receiving inflows in the order of about 6500 cusecs since last night. Pranahita River, a tributary of Godavari received the first flood flow for the season following rains in the catchment area during the last two days. The inflows are expected to increase further in a day or two.

Sudhakar Reddy said the inflows would help build up the storage at Medigadda over the next one week so as to lift water to meet the irrigation needs in the ayacut.

He expressed the hope that the irrigation scenario will change soon giving hope to the State by the second week of July as good rainfall was expected in Godavari basin right from the first week of July.