Three major rivers in the State, the Krishna, Godavari and Tungabhadra, were in spate simultaneously on Sunday following torrential rains in their catchment areas, bringing in a fresh wave of heavy inflows to the projects of Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar, Tungabhadra and Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage.
Officials manning these projects allowed controlled release of water by opening their crest-gates, while using maximum quantity for power generation.
Consequently, the contribution to the State grid by hydro-electric stations at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar, which have a combined installed capacity of 2,635 MW, had gone up to 35 million units (mu) and 20 mu, respectively. With this, the overall output from the hydel sources in the State crossed 60 mu for the day, with over 5 mu coming in from plants at Jurala and Sileru.
A heavy flood of 4 lakh cusecs reached Srisailam from the Krishna and Tungabhadra, forcing engineers to open six more of its crest-gates (four were already lifted) to allow a major part of this huge quantity to join Nagarjunasagar. The dam's hydel stations were being operated uninterruptedly at full capacity (1,670 MW). The plants at Nagarjunasagar too were pressed into full-scale operation (965 MW). The water level in Nagarjunasagar swelled to 575 ft (full level 590 ft).
With the Tungabhadra being in the floods again, the Karnataka Government opened a majority of the spillway gates of the T. B. Dam at Hospet, sending out nearly 1.5 lakh cusecs to Sunkesula Barrage in Kurnool district. As the gates of Sunkesula too were opened, this water reached Srisailam.
The Godavari provided a picture of contrasts, being in floods below Bhadrachalam and flowing sparsely above this point. This was due to the fact that the Sabari, Kinnerasani, Taliperu, etc which were in flash floods, joined the Godavari below Bhadrachalam where it was flowing at 40.4 ft mark. On the other hand, a huge quantity of 8.3 lakh cusecs was flowing out from Cotton Barrage as 175 of its gates were lifted.
