HYDERABAD: For the first time in its history, 11 of the 12 gates of the Srisailam dam were lifted on Friday due to increasing water inflows.
Though the officials have assured that there is no immediate threat, the increasing inflows indicate that the surrounding areas of the project are likely to get flooded in the next 24 hours.
At noon, the Srisailam project received a whopping inflow of 13.5 lakh cusecs against an outflow of 12 lakh cusecs. After lifting all the gates, the outflow increased to 13 lakh cusecs at 6 p.m. in the evening.
The inflows in Krishna river reached a whopping 19 lakh cusecs by evening and the flood water is likely to reach the Srisailam project by 2 a.m. in the wee hours of Saturday.
During midnight, the water inflows into the Srisailam project touched 20 lakh cusecs even as the outflows continued at around 11 lakh cusecs. The officials informed that the water levels crossed the full reservoir level of 885 feet and increased upto 887 feet. The officials said that water is likely to cross the cushion level (maximum level of reservoir) of 892 feet after midnight and rebound into the backwater area of the reservoir.
``The maximum outflow capacity of the Srisailam project after lifting all the 12 gates is 13 lakh cusecs at any given time.
Unless the rains subside, the backwater areas are likely to be flooded as the water inflows are expected to reach 20 lakh cusecs by tomorrow morning even as the outflow capacity is only 13 lakh cusecs,’’ said a senior engineering official in Irrigation department.
The officials said that all the 12 gates of Srisailam project were never opened in its history and the maximum number of gates opened till date were 10 during 2006 and 2007 floods. The Srisailam project received its highest inflow of 7.35 lakh cusecs on October 15 in 1998 during the floods which resulted in inundation of the surrounding areas and also flooded the 770 MW unit on the right bank of the hydel power station.
The flood flow is estimated to be two and half times bigger than that of 1998.
The increasing inflows are a result of heavy rains in catchment areas of Jurala, Handri, Tungabhadra and other major tributaries of Krishna river.
The officials said that water from all these rivers are being released to join in Krishna river increasing the water flow to 19 lakh cusecs by noon.
None of the projects on these tributaries are capable of holding such a huge water flow and the water is being released to Srisailam project increasing the flood threat for the surrounding areas.
Meanwhile, the water inflow of Nagarjuna Sagar project reached 12 lakh cusecs by noon against the outflow of eight lakh cusecs.
All projects except for the Nagarjuna Sagar reached their full capacity. The officials said that the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir level touched the 320 TMC mark against its maximum capacity of 408.24 TMC. The reservoir is likely to touch its full capacity in the next 24 hours.
``This is for the first time that any of the projects have received such huge inflows.
As most of the major projects were constructed to face such huge inflows, there is no possibility of their collapse. However, the District Collectors were informed to evacuate people residing in the backwater areas keeping in view of the chances of flooding,’’ said another official.