Incessant rains: Water bodies filling to brim in Telangana

Hyderabad: With major water bodies in Godavari River basin in north Telangana receiving more inflows, irrigation department officials are now focusing on meeting the water requirements of farmers for continuing their cultivation works in the rainy season with ease. Since Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) and Pocharam in Nizamabad, Swarna and Kaddem projects in Adilabad and […]

Hyderabad: With major water bodies in Godavari River basin in north Telangana receiving more inflows, irrigation department officials are now focusing on meeting the water requirements of farmers for continuing their cultivation works in the rainy season with ease.

Since Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) and Pocharam in Nizamabad, Swarna and Kaddem projects in Adilabad and Sripada Yellampalli in Peddapalli were brimming with water, irrigation officials are confident of fulfilling the water requirement of farmers during this reason.

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The water levels in SRSP touched 67.75 tmc as against total storage capacity of 91 tmc. At 11 pm on Sunday, the inflows into the project were 1.36 lakh cusecs and 25,000 cusecs of water was discharged by opening nine gates.

However, at 4 pm on Monday, the inflows came down to 60,910 cusecs and 41,670 cusecs were released through 15 crest gates to feed Mid Manair Dam and to generate power. “As we are expecting more inflows from the upstream areas at Babli, Aurangabad and Nanded in Maharashtra and catchment areas abutting the project, the dam will be filled to brim in the next few days,” Chief Engineer (Irrigation) Jagtial K Sudhakar Reddy told Telangana Today.

As the SRSP was receiving adequate water, the requirement of farmers would be fulfilled on priority during this rainy season. The project received inflows in large quantities within a few weeks after the onset of monsoon.

“We are expecting more inflows in August and September,” he said. On Monday, Telangana State Legislative Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy released water into the canal from Pocharam dam at Nagireddypet mandal in Kamareddy district to enable farmers to take up cultivation without any problem.

The Kaddem project in Adilabad district received 60,351 average inflows in the last 24 hours as on Monday at 6 am while 59,783 cusecs of water is released downstream. Similarly, Sripada Yellampalli project received 2.30 lakh cusecs average inflows in the last 24 hours and 2.53 lakh cusecs was released.

As much as 8.95 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from Laxmi barrage in Medigadda through 81 gates, according to irrigation department officials.

They said the barrage was receiving 8.95 lakh cusecs of inflows at 3 pm. They said the inflows were expected to increase significantly in the next few days as the India Meteorological Department forecast heavy rains.