Sizeable inflows began to reach the stretch of the Krishna river in the State on Saturday, promising to improve the storages in the reservoirs of the projects based on it.
As Almatti and Narayanpur reservoirs in Karnataka were full, about 50,000 cusecs of water was released from these projects through power generation.
The water began reaching Jurala dam, the first harnessing point of the river in Andhra Pradesh.
C. Muralidhar, engineer-in-chief, Irrigation, who is monitoring the reservoirs position, said the present inflows were likely to continue for a couple of days, increasing the present storage of Jurala from 5 tmcft to 8 tmcft by Sunday evening.
Power generation
AP Genco was making preparations to resume power generation at Jurala from the six units of its hydroelectric station, each having 39 MW capacity, from Sunday.
Consequently, Srisailam reservoir, 100 km downstream, is expected to get the season’s first quota of inflows. The Tungabhadra Dam at Hospet based on Tungabhadra river, was already getting sizeable inflows though it requires 25 tmcft of water to become full.
The projects based on the Krishna, including Nagarjuanasagar, are now poised to get inflows as Almatti is near full while Narayanpur is getting surplus inflows.
Godavari
Meanwhile, the lower stretch of the Godavari river continued to get heavy inflows while Sriramsagar project that lies in its upper portion was devoid of inflows. The contribution being made by the Sabari and other tributaries was such that a huge quantity of 4 lakh cusecs was being let out from Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Rajahmundry into the sea.
In the North Andhra, the inflows reaching the Vamsadhra, sources of some projects in the region, swelled to 12,000 cusecs.
The widespread rain has placed the State, as a whole, in a better position compared to the situation a few days ago, by wiping out the deficit. Excess rainfall was reported by many districts for the season so far.
