Fourteen of Nagarjuna Sagar Project’s 26 crest gates lifted

The decision to lift the project gates was prompted by a substantial inflow of 4.22 lakh cusecs adding to the project storage by 33 to 35 TMC a day, largely due to heavy outflows from the Srisailam reservoir

Hyderabad: Ending a year-long crop holiday and severe scarcity conditions that stalked its vast ayacut of 18 lakh acres spread over the Telugu States of Telangana (6.3 lakh acres) and Andhra Pradesh (11.74 lakh acres), 14 of the 26 crest gates of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) were lifted releasing the flood flow from the dam on Monday.

The project is discharging a combined outflow of over 2 lakh cusecs from all the outlets including its two main canals. The volume will be raised further if needed taking the inflows from the upstream projects into consideration. The river bank villages in Nalgonda and Palnadu districts were sounded an alert a day well in advance. Fishermen were advised not to venture into the river.

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The decision to lift the project gates was prompted by a substantial inflow of 4.22 lakh cusecs adding to the project storage by 33 to 35 TMC a day, largely due to heavy outflows from the Srisailam reservoir, which was one of the four upstream projects that were already brimming in the impact of the surging flood flows in Krishna river.

The Nagarjuna Sagar project storage, which reached 290 TMC morning, was set to touch its gross storage capacity of 312 TMC by the end of the day. The reservoir level rose to 584 feet as against its full reservoir level (FRL) of 590 feet. Water has already been released to the Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal (NSLC) which supports irrigation in about 6.30 lakh acres of its total ayacut of 18 lakh acres. The right canal takes care of the rest. AP is drawing some 5700 cusecs from the right canal head regulator of the project as against 4613 cusecs released to Left canal supporting the ayacut in Telangana.

The project gates remained closed for the whole year in 2023 as it received the lowest inflows in 40 years as in case of all the other dams in the Krishna basin because of the deficient rainfall in the catchment area extended over the Maharashtra and Karnataka, besides the lower riparian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The project gates lifted last time was on August 17, 2022. All the 26 gates of the project were lifted discharging some 3.3 lakh cusecs in view of the heavy floods in the river. The project gates were opened on August 1 in 2021, August 12 in 2020, August 12 in 2019 and August 20 in 2018.