The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Water released into Sagar canals

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Saturday, Jul 22, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Water released into Sagar canals

Special Correspondent

Heavy inflows reach Srisailam dam; water may also be released to KC Canal

IN FULL FLOW: Krishna water being released into the Nagarjunasagar right canal from the reservoir on Friday. PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

HYDERABAD: Water was finally released into the right and left bank canals of Nagarjunasagar on Friday for the kharif season even as heavy inflows reached the Srisailam dam. The two canals serve an ayacut of 24 lakh acres.

The Government has also indicated that water would be released to the KC Canal, which serves an ayacut of three lakh acres. A huge quantity of water is being released from the Srisailam dam through the Pothireddypadu head regulator to serve the KC Canal and other canals in Rayalaseema region, including Telugu Ganga. One lakh cusecs of water is flowing into the dam.

Gradual increase

To start with, only 500 cusecs each was being released into the Nagarjunasagar canals. The quantity would be gradually increased depending on power generation on head regulators of the canals, NSP chief engineer Y. Abdul Basheer said. For the present, 1,500 MW of power is being generated at Srisailam, 450 MW at Nagarjunasagar's main powerhouse and 20 MW each in the two canals.

Meanwhile, power demand in the agriculture sector has gone up due to the dry spell. Transco officials say most farmers have begun operating their pumpsets to save nurseries or crops already sown.

The farm sector is now consuming 28 per cent of the power generated in the State and this is likely to go up to 35 per cent soon if the dry spell continues.

Meanwhile, the 500 MW second unit of NTPC's Simhadri project at Visakhapatnam, which was shut down, resumed generation on Friday.

Nalgonda Staff Reporter adds: Accompanied by the Superintending Engineer, C.Krishnaiah and Executive Engineer M.Narender Rao, the in-charge Chief Engineer Y.Abdul Basheer pressed green buttons at the head regulators situated at different sites. The second gate of the Lal Bahadur (left) canal and fifth gate of Jawahar (right) canal were lifted to a height of 2.5 feet to let out 500 cusecs each in the first one hour. Later the outflow was steadily increased to 20,000 cusecs.

By the time the water was released into the canals the level in the reservoir was 559.5 ft and the project was getting 40,000 cusecs of inflows from the Srisailam reservoir on an average. The water level during this day last year was only 507 ft, the Executive Engineer said.

22 lakh acres

"We are very happy to let water into both the canals. About 22 lakh acres would be irrigated in this kharif with the water," Mr.Basheer said. The officials broke coconuts before releasing the water. Farmers under the command area have been waiting for the release of Krishna waters for the last 20 days. The initial plan to release water into both the canals on July 15 was postponed to Friday due to some technical reasons.

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