MANDYA: With rain battering Kodagu district, over five tmcft of water has flown into the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir in the last couple of days.
Irrigation officials are anticipating that the reservoir would fill to the brim in a day. The district administration has issued a flood alert directing the people in the low-lying areas to move to safer places.
The irrigation officials are closely monitoring the inflow and have decided to release water at any moment in the interest of dam safety.
Presiding over the meeting with officials, Deputy Commissioner Kumar said the inflow into the dam is pegged at 46,000 cusecs while the Hemavathi reservoir is also brimming which may lead to discharge of water from it as well causing the inflow into the KRS dam to 70,000 cusecs. The authorities are directed to discharge 20,000 cusecs and increase it to over 50,000 cusecs once the water level touches 120 feet at the KRS as against the maximum of 124.8 feet.
He said the India Metrological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for Kodagu predicting heavy rains in the next five days. The DC directed officials to identify villages that will be affected if 1 to 2 lakh cusecs of water is discharged from the KRS.
The revenue officials are instructed that the 53 villages in Srirangapatna, 21 in Malavalli and 15 in Pandavapura taluks will be affected by the flood situation.
Keeping in mind the inconvenience caused to people residing in low-lying areas, Kumar asked officials to discharge water in phases.