Following an increase in the inflow in the Almatti dam owing to heavy rain in the Krishna Basin and in the Western Ghats, Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited (KBJNL) authorities have started releasing water from the dam.
On Thursday, the officials recorded an inflow at a rate of 67,004 cusecs, while they discharged water at a rate of 27,710 cusecs to the Narayanpur dam, through the power generation unit at the dam.
The officials believe that since rain is continuously lashing the Western Ghats and is expected to continue for the next week, water is being discharged to the Narayanpur dam even before Almatti dam is full.
Water storage on Thursday was 57.065 tmcft of the 123 tmcft capacity. While the height of the dam is 519 metres, water is now stored at 514.30 metres.
“During the summer, Narayanpur dam had gone dry; now, as we are receiving water in the Almatti dam, we will release some quantum of water hoping that we will get more waters in the coming days at Almatti,” an official said.
With the commencement of outflow, power generation, which was stopped in March, has been resumed. On Wednesday, the four units generated 170 MW of power. It has six units with a total power generating capacity of 290 MW.
Meanwhile, though the dam is receiving water, the delay in the dam getting filled to the brim has caused worry among farmers who are largely dependent on the dam for irrigation.
The dam’s water is also used by several major lift irrigation projects and drinking purposes. The dam irrigates 6.24 lakh hectares. Last year, by July 15 itself, Almatti and Narayanpur dams had got filled owing to copious rainfall.
Amid all this, the Irrigation Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on July 21 in Bengaluru to decide releasing water into the canals.
