Inflows into the Pulichintala reservoir and Prakasam barrage have dropped, allaying fears of inundation of the low-lying areas downstream the barrage.
Authorities said that a discharge of three lakh cusecs from the barrage would increase the water level by two metres. These fears were temporarily allayed with the inflows coming down.
Pulichintala received an average of 1.63 lakh cusecs in the 24 hours ending at 6 a.m. on Friday. The irrigation authorities released an average of 1.51 lakh cusecs downstream to the Prakasam barrage.
Addressing the media on Friday, Minister for Major Irrigation Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said that for the first time the Pulichintala project was impounding 30 tmcft.
“What the Congress government failed to do in 10 years we have done in two years,” he said.
The amount of water in the Pulichintala project reached 30 tmcft at 9 p.m. on Thursday, the Minister announced.
Giving details of the origin of water received by the Pulichintala dam this season, the Minister said that on August 6 there was 2.72 tmcft in the dam. From August 9 to 24, the project received 18.61 tmcft from Nagarjuna Sagar.
The authorities released 15.84 tmcft from Pulichintala from August 6 to 28 for the Krishna delta canals. So, the water available in the project on August 28 was just 1.41tmcft.
Huge inflows
Fortunately, water started pouring into the project from the local catchment (tributaries, rivulets, and streams that join the river below Nagarjuna Sagar dam) area from August 30. The dam received 10.90 tmcft from the local catchment between August 30 and September 1, another 5.40 tmcft between September 13 and 14, and finally another 14.04 tmcft between September 22 and 23.
Out of the 14.04 tmcft received on Thursday (September 22), 8.716 tmcft was released downstream to the Prakasam barrage, the Minister said.
With reduction in arrivals to Pulichintala, the authorities closed five of the 12 gates that were opened on Thursday.
The Minister also showed to the media the impressive footage of the Pulichintala reservoir holding 30 tmcft, and discharging more than 2.5 lakh cusecs from 12 gates shot on Thursday by a drone.
