The under construction lower Jurala hydro electric power house at Atmakur in Mahbubnagar was inundated with water from Upper hydel station, 25 kms upstream, after power generation late on Wednesday night.
Two persons in the lower station were rescued with the help of ropes when the incident coincided with the upper station commencing generation following heavy inflows into Jurala reservoir.
All the six units of upper station, also called Priyadarshini Jurala hydro electric project, were generating at full capacity to produce 234 MW but work on two units of the under construction Lower Jurala Hydro Electric Power House which were ready to be synchronised had to be stopped as water entered inside with a thud late on Wednesday night. The water came from the gate of one of the six units of the lower station where the engineers were working to check leakages, the Telangana State generation corporation chairman and managing director D. Prabhakar Rao told The Hindu.
He said power was immediately shut off and the downstream gate of the unit opened to avoid complete inundation of power house. The electrical control panels were kept safe from flooding.
Water reached the lower station at 10.05 p.m though it was impounded from Upper Jurala project after generation at 6 p.m .
The elevation at the intake point of the lower project on the upstream side was 297 mts at 9 p.m when the engineers inspected the power house to make sure there were no leakages. A sudden gush of water was observed through the upstream gate of unit four, he added.
He also said 500 horse power motors from Kothagudem and Pulichintala will be pressed into service to drain water from the lower Jurala pump houses. Meanwhile, Jurala reservoir continued to receive a heavy inflow of 87,855 cusecs while the outflow was 36,000 cusecs from spillway and 41,000 after power generation.
