The gates of all the irrigation projects on Godavari and two of its tributaries were lifted on Wednesday following heavy rains in the catchment and the upper reaches of the river right up to Jaikwadi project in Maharashtra.
Starting from Sriramsagar (SRSP) project at Pochampad, then Yellampally and further down to barrages of Kaleswaram project at Sundilla, Annaram and Medigadda, the gates were kept open to discharge lakhs of cusecs of water into the river as it flowed menacingly.
Forty gates of Sriramsagar were lifted in the morning, but fourteen of them were shut down as the flow of water slowed down later.
The Chief Engineer of SRSP B. Shanker told The Hindu that there was no respite in flooding at SRSP as the gates of projects on the Godavari in Maharashtra at Babli and further up at Balegaon, Nanded, Madalgaon and Jaikwadi were open. The gates of Babli were in any case supposed to be kept open till October 28 every year as per Supreme Court directions. The SRSP was full to its capacity at 1,091 ft and a storage of 90 tmc ft on Wednesday.
Parallelly, the gates of projects on tributaries of Godavari, namely Kaddam and Manair, were also lifted due to heavy rains. All gates of Kaddam were lifted to release 1.52 lakh cusecs of water to Yellampally. In turn, twenty-five gates of Yellampally were also lifted to discharge water to barrages of Kaleswaram. The gates of three barrages at Sundilla, Annaram and Madigadda were also lifted. The scene in Manair river which is a confluence of Mulavagu on one side and Mohidummedavagu on the other near Karimnagar town was a rare spectacle to people.
Twenty gates of Lower Manair Dam in the town were lifted to release water into Manair river. Six gates of mid-Manair dam which was on the upper contours of LMD were lifted while the water jumped weir further up at Upper Manair Dam at Narmala.
Two other tributaries of the Godavari, namely Manjeera and Singur, were, however, yet to fill their respective projects.
Water was let out through all the five canals of SRSP which originated at Pochampad. The flood-flow canal, particularly, carried the major share of water in the canal network.
