The Andhra Pradesh government is likely to release Krishna water to Chennai by September 14. This was decided at the first permanent technical committee meeting of officials of the Water Resources Department in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh organised at the Chief Engineer’s Office in Tirupati on Saturday.
A team of officials from the WRD and Chennai Metrowater attended the meeting. Officials said their Andhra Pradesh counterparts had assured them to release water between September 10 and 14 after building up storage at Kandaleru.
The reservoir in Andhra Pradesh now has storage of nearly 23 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) and is receiving inflow from the Somasila reservoir. The WRD in Andhra Pradesh plans to step up storage till 30 tmcft before discharging water for Chennai’s drinking water needs, an official said.
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As per the inter-State agreement under the Krishna Water Supply project, Chennai has to be provided with 8 tmcft of water between July and October. “The Andhra Pradesh officials have assured us to release a minimum of 4 tmc in two months. We need to realise about 700 cusecs (cubic feet per second) daily to achieve it. By then, our reservoirs will also begin to receive inflow from catchment areas during the northeast monsoon,” he said.
The committee was formed to discuss the modalities of water release to Chennai and technical issues in supply from Kandaleru reservoir. It may be recalled that the city received 8.05 tmcft between September-end last year and June this year in two spells. This was one of the highest realisation of water since the project’s launch in 1996.