Telangana: Gates of major water bodies closed as inflows recede drastically

Hyderabad: Barring Lakshmi barrage at Medigadda, the Irrigation department officials closed the crest gates of major water bodies in Godavari basin as inflows were dropped significantly. In spite of getting inflows in less than 30,000 cusecs, the officials decided to close the gates of several dams. Thirty-six gates of the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) in […]

Hyderabad: Barring Lakshmi barrage at Medigadda, the Irrigation department officials closed the crest gates of major water bodies in Godavari basin as inflows were dropped significantly. In spite of getting inflows in less than 30,000 cusecs, the officials decided to close the gates of several dams. Thirty-six gates of the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) in Nizamabad, which received 4.18 lakh cusecs of heavy inflows within a few weeks after the onset of monsoon on July 14, were also closed.

The dam received highest inflows of 4.18 lakh cusecs from the upstream and catchment areas on July 14. The same 4.16 lakh cusecs of water was released downstream through 36 gates. The dam got instant inflows of 26,510 cusecs of water on Saturday and the present level of water is at 1088 ft as against Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 1091 ft.

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The 18 gates of Kaddam project in Adilabad district were also closed since inflows now came down to 7,000 cusecs as against over five lakh cusecs of inflows received due to torrential rains in the upstream areas in neighbouring Maharashtra and dam catchment localities last week. However, officials at Lakshmi barrage are continuing to release 12.10 lakh cusecs of water from 85 gates since it is still getting 12.10 lakh cusecs of inflows. They said the outflows would be reduced as when the inflows start dropping.

From Sunday night, the inflows were expected to drop to a large extent since there is no rainfall in the State, they said. In Krishna River basin, the Priyadharshini Jurala Project (PJP) in Mahbubnagar is getting 1.51 lakh cusecs of water while the outflows were 1.57 lakh cusecs. The inflows into Srisailam dam continued to increase on Saturday morning.

As against 2.45 lakh inflows on Friday, the dam got 2.54 lakh cusecs of water on Saturday while the outflows were only 17,687 cusecs, officials said.