With a record inflow of 1.91 lakh cusecs, the Srisailam reservoir level rapidly rose to 854.5 feet by Monday evening and a nominal discharge of 3,288 cusecs was recorded.
The reservoir, whose full level was 885 feet, has a storage of 90.56 tmcft and the level could go up due to the constant inflows, according to officials. As flood water gushed in from the Jurala and the Tungabhadra dams, the reservoir level had been rising constantly. The inflow into the Srisailam reservoir level was 1.81 lakh cusecs at 4 p.m. on Monday and it rose to 1,91,624 cusecs by 6 p.m.
The historic Sri Sangameswaram temple in the Krishna river bed was submerged by the gushing water. The temple normally remains closed for eight months, but it was open from February to September third week this year, according to temple priest Telakapalli Raghuram Sarma.
The gopuram would also be submerged if the reservoir level rose to 863 feet, Mr. Sarma said. He performed Ganga pooja and Sri Saksheeswara pooja on Monday. The water touched the pushkar ghat steps and the Bheema Lingam was submerged in the September first week, he recalled.
MP’s bid to lift gates
Meanwhile, Nandyal MP S.P.Y. Reddy and his son-in-law Sajjala Sridhar Reddy performed pooja to Krishna river at the Pothireddipadu head regulator on Sunday evening. They then tried to get the crest gates lifted to discharge water, but engineers objected to it. The MP spoke to Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao on phone and urged him to release water from the head regulator for irrigation and drinking needs.
The Minister assured the MP that the Srisailam reservoir gates would be lifted after obtaining the permission from the Krishna River Management Board within a couple of days.
The MP hoped that water would be released from the head regulator to Telugu Ganga, Srisailam Right Branch Canal and to the KC Canal through the escape channel. Mr. Reddy told farmers not to lose hope as water could be released in a couple of days.
