MAHBUBNAGAR: Heavy inflows into Priyadarshini Jurala Project continued on Sunday, with inflows reaching nearly 2,26,000 cusecs. This prompted the irrigation officials to continue a discharge of 1,87,000 cusecs to the Srisailam Project, downstream.
With a heavy rainfall near Krishna catchment, the inflows into Almatti dam in Karnataka also increased touching 2,20,000 cusecs on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, the outflows were 2,39,000 cusecs and the water was allowed to flow downstream to the Narayanpur project.
At Narayanpur, the inflows were 2,36,000 cusecs and outflows were 2,25,000 cusecs to Jurala. Meanwhile, about half tmcft water was being lifted from Jurala by various irrigation schemes in Palamuru.
At Jurala, the discharge was 1,875 cusecs to its right and left canals. Telangana can use up to 87.20 tmcft water for various lift irrigation schemes across Palamuru region, of which 40.20 tmcft is set out for Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).
In the last 19 years, inflows into Jurala peaked in 2005-06 with total volume reaching a mark of 1,635 tmcft whereas least inflows were recorded in 2015-16, with just 45 tmcft. The maximum inflow into Jurala on a single day was recorded during the 2009 floods, when it touched 11.40 lakh cusecs. All 64 gates of the project were opened that year to release the water downstream.
Even the Srisailam Project has reached 847 ft this year, as against its FRL of 885 feet, due to heavy inflows from Jurala. As against the total storage capacity of Srisailam is 215 tmcft, the live storage is now 70 tmcft. According to Mangesh Kumar, executive engineer at the Srisailam power house, if the present trend of heavy inflows continues at Srisailam, in a couple of days power officials would be operating the hydel stations.
With heavy inflows reaching Srisailam, KLIS has been running on full capacity since it has been built on Srisailam backwaters. It has been lifting 0.20 tmcft water for the past few days. Due to excess water near Regumangadda in the Srisailam backwaters, water is being pumped into the Yelluru reservoir.
According to KLIS officials, irrigation department is busy filling Yelluru, Singotam, Jonnalabanda and Gudipally Ghattu reservoirs to their full storage levels in the coming days, which would cater to the irrigation needs of 4.35 lakh acres across Kollapur, Kalwakurthy, Nagarkurnool, Achampet and Wanaparthy Assembly segments.
For the last few days, two pumps have been lifting 1,500 cusecs of water from Jurala to cater to the irrigation needs of Jogulamba Gadwal district through Nettempadu Lift Irrigation Scheme (NLIS) Lift-I.
However, on Saturday evening, irrigation officials started the third pump at NLIS after they were sure that the canals were not at risk. With three pumps, it is now lifting 2,250 cusecs of water. The water is being used to fill Guddemdoddi reservoir (750 cusecs) and to the Lift II located near Marlabeedu reservoir (1,500 cusecs).
River Krishna has been flowing heavily through the ghats of Nallamala, attracting visitors to villages on its banks for the past few days. Water levels rose near the Somasila ghats by Saturday evening, inundating the ancient Lord Shiva temple at Sangameswara, where seven tributaries of Krishna converge. By Sunday, even the dargah near the temple was inundated.