The radial crest gates of Srisailam project were opened for the first time this water year on Thursday morning to let about 56,000 cusecs water into the Krishna river course.
According to the Irrigation Department officials, two gates were lifted for about 10 feet each to let the water pass through the spillway resulting in a beautiful sight at the dam. Lifting of the spillway gates of the joint major project of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States has been awaited for long this year as there were no significant inflows into the project till August-end this year.
The sizeable inflows that started on August 31 are continuing ever since following good rains in the catchments areas in Maharashtra, Karnataka and also in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The recent weather formations coupled with the impact of the monsoon retreat also helped the project get good inflows.
Officials stated that inflows into Srisailam were recorded at 1,39,007 cusecs at 8 am on Thursday with the water level reaching 884.8 feet against the full reservoir level of 885 ft and the dam was holding 214.84 TMC ft against its full capacity of 215.81 TMC ft. Outflows were recorded at 1,44,160 cusecs with 55,966 cusecs from spillway, abuout 75,250 cusecs from the two power houses, 11,000 cusecs from Pothireddypadu and about 2,000 cusecs for Kalwakurhty and Handri-Neeva lifts.
“Although water release from Srisailam to Nagarjunasagar started as early as in the second week of September with the running of power houses on the right and left banks intermittently by AP and TS, the lifting of spillway gates did not take place so far”, flood monitoring officials of Srisailam stated.
Along with drawal of water from various irrigation systems based on Srisaialm reservoir – Pothireddypadu Head Regulator, Handri-Neeva lift irrigation scheme and Kalwakurthy lift – water release to Nagarjunasagar continued from the second week of September. About 65 TMC ft of water has been released to Nagarjunasagar so far this season improving its water storage to over 162 TMC ft against its capacity of 312 TMC ft. Water storage in this project was as low as 119 TMC ft at the commencement of this water year on June 1.
