All the five gates of the Srisailam Reservoir have been closed to stop the release of water onto the spillway of the dam on Thursday evening.
Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao personally went to the dam and supervised the lifting of the gates when the inflows crossed 2 lakh cusecs one week ago.
Authorities of the Water Resources Department closed the crest gates of the reservoir after the inflows dropped to 90,492 cusecs. The gates were closed to ensure sufficient inflows for power generation (Power House I - 31,826 cusecs and Power House II - 42,378 cusecs), releases to the Pothireddypadu head regulator (13,000 cusecs), Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi LI scheme (1,688 cusecs), and Mahatma Gandhi Kalavakurthi LI Scheme (1,600 cusecs).
The inflows that were more than 2 lakh cusecs in the morning gradually fell by evening and fell below one lakh cusecs by 9 p.m.
Jurala continued to receive inflows of 1,65,592 cusecs till late in the evening and discharge 1,15,000 cusecs downstream to Srisailam. A total of 642.13 tmc ft was recorded in all the 86 reservoirs in the State.
Flood cushion
However, there was still a flood cushion of 318 tmc ft in these reservoirs. While the flood cushion of reservoirs on the Pennar was 155 tmc ft, the reservoirs on the Krishna had a flood cushion of 105 tmc ft. As much as 90.41 tmc ft was said to be available in 36,955 minor irrigation tanks. Another 21.51 tmc ft was said to be available in the 5,92,571 water conservation structures in the State, OSD with the Department of Water Resources A. Varaprasada Rao said.
