VISAKHAPATNAM: The Sileru Hydroelectricity Complex officials are making efforts to fix the jammed gates of the tunnel of Balimela Reservoir that supplied water to Andhra Pradesh at the earliest.
With the snag, the officials have roped in the Polavaram project engineers to rectify the problem and the latter at work to balance the outflows and inflows of the reservoir.
The upper Sileru hydro-electricity project is located between the Chintapalli Agency of Visakhapatnam district and Balimela and it is constructed in two stages. Water is drawn from a weir constructed across Sileru River (also known as Machkund in the upper reaches) at Guntawada, 9 miles downstream of Balimela Reservoir. The full reservoir level of the Guntawada weir is 1,360 feet and with the gates developing snag, the water level went up to 1,356 feet by 6 pm on Saturday.
The Polavaram engineers were partially successful in downing the jammed gates by Saturday evening and the project official said the water flow from the reservoir has been streamlined to some extent.
“The Polavaram engineers have succeeded partially in arresting the water flow by repairing the gates. We hope the glitch will be fixed by Sunday morning,” said A Murali Mohan, superintending engineer of Sileru Hydroelectricity Complex.
6.88 million units power generated
With the increase in the inflows into Guntawada reservoir, the Sileru officials have started generating hydel power. The Sileru HE project has supplied 6.88 million units of power to the national grid.