Motor traffic came to a standstill and there was a traffic jam for some five km near Nagarjunasagar project on Thursday as tourists turned up in large numbers for the visual delight of gushing waters through the opened crest gates.
All the 26 crest gates of the NSP remained open for the fourth consecutive day and the tourist footfall was maximum on Thursday as it was a public holiday.
Starting from 4.30 p.m., till about 7 p.m., the traffic moved at a snail’s pace on the highway to the Hill colony and the police had a tough time regulating the flow. The situation turned normal but after a painful three-hour short ride for the visitors.
Tourist traffic around Nagarjunasagar project saw a consistent rise starting Monday, when the crest gates were opened following the huge flood inflows.
The dam recorded over six lakh cusecs of inflows the previous day, and on Thursday, from 4 a.m., onwards the inflows rose and crossed the nine-lakh cusec mark. The water level reached 587 feet towards the evening against the full reservoir level of 590 feet.
Accordingly, the downstream Pulichintala project too received heavy inflows and 6,53,000 cusecs was released downstream. On Thursday an additional three gates were opened apart from the 11 opened on Wednesday. The balancing reservoir was holding 38.74 tmc ft as against the capacity 45.77 tmc ft. The flood waters entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Mattapally’s Sri Laxmi Narsimha Swamy temple. Officials said water was entering the temple through the cracks and gaps in the high walls. Suryapet Joint Collector D. Sanjeeva Reddy visited the flood-affected sites and took stock of the situation.
