HYDERABAD: The Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) is expected to be filled up to its brim shortly. Clearing apprehensions of the farmers about the shortage of water, the NSP has been getting good inflows this year, 15 days ahead of its normal course. The officials are expecting that if the current inflows into NSP continue, the project would be filled up to its brim in the next ten days time.
Once NSP is filled, the and AP and TS governments could draw sufficient water to crops and be drinking water purposes. Besides, the Andhra Pradesh government could store water at Pulichintala, which has completely dried up now.
The officials said that there was a possibility of lifting the NSP gates this year, after a gap of four years. Last time the NSP gates were opened in 2014. According to NSP chief engineer S Sunil, the current storage at Nagarjuna Sagar was 200 tmc on Monday, a short of 112 tmc against the full storage capacity of 312.05 tmc. “If the current inflows continued for next ten days, the project will be filled up to its brim,” Sunil told Express and added that the current inflows to NSP were 2.10 lakh cusecs.
Sunil said that NSP was getting good inflows in August itself when compared to the previous years. “We are receiving good inflows almost 15 days in advance,” he said. He said that September and October months were considered good months for NSP. “If we go by the past, for every fortnight we used to get 100 tmc yield at NSP in September and October. So, the NSP will be overflowed in this current season,” he said.
In such a case, there would be no problem for the present Kharif crop but also for the next Rabi crop too, he added. However, the inflows from the Tungabhadra project were receded to Srisailam, but good flows were coming from Almatti and Narayanpur.
Meanwhile, in Godavari basin, the Kaddam Narayan Reddy Project’s surplus discharge was 1,22,342 cusecs at 7 pm on Monday and the officials opened 13 gates. As per the SRSP gauge report at 8 pm, the inflows into Sriram Sagar Project were recorded as 73,840 cusecs.
At 8 pm on Monday, the storage capacity of Srisailam was 200.6588 tmc and the inflows were 2,39,023 cusecs. The outflows from Srisailam were 2,39,023 cusecs. Of which, the releases form the spillway were 1,34,180 cusecs.