KURNOOL: With the heavy inflows reaching from Jurala and Sunkesula projects in the upper reaches of Krishna basin, Srisailam dam authorities on Sunday lifted four crest gates for about 10 feet height each and released 1,11,932 cusecs of water downstream towards Nagarjuna Sagar.
This is the sixth time in this season that the crest gates of Srisailam dam were lifted to release floodwater downstream.
The projects have received 1,350 TMC of water in the season and dam officials released over 1,020 TMC of water downstream in the past two months. It is first time in 25 years that such a huge volume of water was released.
First, the dam gates were lifted on August 9 after heavy inflows. The crest gates were also opened on September 10, 20 and 26 and October 9 to release floodwater downstream.
With the incessant rains in the upper catchment areas, Jurala project in Telangana and Telanganain Kurnool district are receiving heavy inflows. The authorities of both the projects, after maintaining the FRL, are releasing the floodwater downstream towards Srisailam dam. As the dam is receiving 1,35,597 cusecs of water from both Jurala and Sunkesula projects, the water level in Srisailam has reached 884.80 feet against the FRL of 885 feet.
Meanwhile, Telangana officials are drawing 2,400 cusecs a day from Srisailam dam through Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy LI scheme, while their AP counterparts are drawing 2,026 cusecs from Malyala LI Scheme and 7,000 cusecs from Pothireddypadu Head Regulator.
With heavy inflows continuing, the generation of hydroelectricity has reached its peak at 25 million units for the past few days. According to officials, presently six generators with a production capacity of 150 MW at left powerhouse and six generations at right powerhouse with 170 MW capacity producing power using 69,364 cusecs of water from the reservoir.