Release of water to the canal systems under Priyadarshini Jurala project in Jogulamba-Gadwal district has commenced from Sunday night as the project has been getting inflows in some measure or the other for over three weeks now, and a total of over 5 tmc ft water has already reached the reservoir this monsoon season.
Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy accompanied by legislators Ala Venkateshwar Reddy (Devarkadra), Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy (Gadwal), Dr. V.M. Abraham (Alampur), Chittem Rammohan Reddy (Makthal) and Gadwal Zilla Parishad chairperson Saritha Tirupathaiah formally released water to the Right and Left Canals on Sunday night.
According to officials, it has been planned to give water to the entire 1.02 lakh acres ayacut under the Right and Left canals of Jurala, 1.3 lakh acres under Nettempadu lift, 1.7 lakh acres under Bheema lift and 0.32 lakh acres under Koilsagar lift. The three lifts would source water from Jurala reservoir or its back waters.
Besides, the officials have also decided to give water to 3.5 lakh acres under Kalwakurthy lift, which draws water from Srisailam, and another 42,000 acres under the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) in the combined Mahabubnagar district this year. “Many of the 6,425 minor irrigation tanks in the combined Mahabubnagar district already have water ranging from 25% to 50% as they were replenished even in May.
Vaanakalam crops have already been raised in over 11.75 lakh acres in the combined Mahabubnagar district out of the planned extent of over 19.24 lakh acres for the season. The extent would shoot up once the transplantation of paddy gains momentum, the officials said.
Sources in the Irrigation Department told The Hindu that drawl of water by Nettempadu lift commenced on July 5 and by Bheema lift on July 6 and they are drawing about 1,400 cusecs together. Lifting of water by Koilsagar also commenced on Monday.
“With the release of flood from Narayanpur increasing to over 45,000 cusecs by lifting seven crest gates, release of water to the river course from Jurala too is expected to begin soon through power generation,” the sources explained.
On the flood to Almatti, a flood monitoring engineer said it is continuing at over 55,000 cusecs although the forecast was that it would fall.
“Even if the water release from Almatti to Narayanpur continues for another couple of days, sizeable inflows would continue into Jurala till the week-end,” the engineer stated.
