NIZAMABAD: In a bid to reduce the accumulation of silt in the reservoir, the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) engineers have sent a request to the State government, through their higher officials, urging it to find out a permanent solution for preventing crop cultivation on the project lands (river bed area) which is one of the major reasons that cause the same.
Situated at Balkonda Assembly constituency, though the gross storage level of SRSP was 112 tmcft, it got reduced in the course of time and the official live storage level is 90 tmcft. In the meantime, sources told Express that a survey conducted by the officials in 2014 had found that the capacity had further gone down and reached 80 tmcft. However, the report never saw the light of the day.
When Express interacted with a few SRSP engineers, they opined that farmers take up cultivation on SRSP lands while facing water woes. As a result, silt start getting accumulated in the project which soon reduces its capacity.
According to sources, the SRSP officials have also requested permission to mark its boundaries and erect fences along the territory. Speaking to Express, SRSP Executive Engineer (EE) B Ram Rao said, the ryots should understand that the storage capacity of the project reduced to almost 32 tmcft due to the accumulation of silt. If this continues, it would affect the project completely, he added.