Irrigation department begins drawdown of Singur reservoir for repairs

Irrigation officials have begun releasing water from the Singur multipurpose project to facilitate repair works recommended by the National Dam Safety Review Panel. Storage will be reduced over the next 30 to 40 days while experts assess damage to the dam and embankment.

Sangareddy: The irrigation officials have started emptying the Singur multipurpose project, built across river Manjeera near Singur in Pulkal mandal, on Saturday to take up repair works suggested by the National Dam Safety Review Panel (NDSRP) of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA). The irrigation department has begun releasing 2,500 cusecs of water downstream by operating the hydroelectric project.

The water storage will be reduced to 8 TMCft in the next 30 to 40 days, with the released water to be utilised downstream. The project now has 16 TMCft of water against its full storage capacity of 29.91 TMCft.

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In the wake of the NDSRP warning, which found damage to the project’s earthen embankment and upstream revetment during its visit last summer, the storage was restricted to 16 TMCft this year despite abundant inflows from upstream.

Meanwhile, the irrigation department has already taken up repair works on the upstream revetment with an outlay of Rs. 16 crore. While depleting the reservoir, an expert team will monitor the condition of the dam and the earthen embankment and assess the extent of damage before taking up further repairs.