Rusted crest gate of Musi Project fails

Water flowing down into River Krishna

Water released through two crest gates of Musi Project on October 1 due to increased inflows.

The Musi Project brimming with waters till a few days ago, started draining into the river Krishna on Saturday following failure of one of its rusted crest gates.

The project was discharging about 5000 cusecs into the river course and it is estimated the water levels would fall by 25 feet till preventive measures are taken up on Sunday morning.

The dam’s full reservoir level being 645 feet, water levels were at 644.5 feet on October 1, and the same day officials of the Irrigation Department had operated two gates.

Following heavy rains in the upstream, in Hyderabad, the dam was receiving about 2000 cusecs, and exercising precaution officials released 1600 cusecs water.

The dam provides for irrigation of about 30,000 acres through its left and right bank canals.

According to officials, at around 6.45 p.m. on Saturday the concrete beams of one of the 12 crest gates came off and the gate moved out of its lock position.

As light conditions failed, repairs or preventive action on the dam could not be taken immediately and were planned for Sunday morning. And at the current rate of 5000 cusec discharge, last reported at 9 p.m., officials said the water level would come down to 615 feet by morning. The Musi Project commenced in 1954 was completed in February 1963. With 4.46 tmcft storage capacity, it provides irrigation in three mandals each of Suryapet and Nalgonda districts.

Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy reviewed the situation with officials. The Suryapet police alerted the residents downstream villages and have heightened the vigil at the site to monitor the dam safety.