VIJAYAWADA: Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has said the department is taking steps to store water in Pulichintala project to its full capacity this year.
The department has been storing only 30 tmc as against the reservoir’s capacity of 45.7 tmc. Devineni said the department is planning to provide at least one tmc of water to Kurnool district through Owk Tunnel by September 5.
Speaking to the reporters on Sunday, the minister observed that the department was releasing 1.25 lakh cusecs from Srisalam and 50,000 cusecs from Nagarjuna Sagar to downstream due to heavy inflows to the projects.
“From upstream of Nagarjuna Sagar, we are getting an inflow of 11 tmc every day. From there, we are releasing about 65,000 cusecs to Pulichintala. About 14.5 tmc of water is available in Pulichintala as of now, and we can store another 31 tmc. Since we plan to store water to its full capacity for the first time, we have alerted Guntur and Krishna district administrations to monitor if low-lying areas would be inundated ,” he explained.
The minister also observed that the officials were diverting 7,500-11,000 cusecs to Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal in order to meet the irrigation needs of Guntur and Prakasam districts.
The minister further observed that about 10,000 cusecs of water was being released from Pulichintala to Prakasam Barrage. “From the barrage, we are diverting about 13,000 cusecs into the canals,” he said.
Giving details about the number of people who visited Polavaram project, Devineni said, “About 1.02 lakh people visited the project site so far. However, the Opposition leader, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, did not have time to visit it.”
He further lambasted the YSRC chief for promising to bring back ‘Rajanna Rajyam’ if elected to power.
After a gap of four years, two crest gates of Nagarjuna Sagar Project were lifted up to 5 ft on Sunday to discharge a total of 15,380 cusecs. The project crest gates were kept open for four hours
The water level in Nagarjuna Sagar project was recorded at 586.40 ft against the Full Reservoir Level of 590 ft. Nalgonda MP Gutha Sukhender Reddy and irrigation officials were present on the occasion
Many people from nearby areas reached the project early in the morning to witness the release of water. Meanwhile, inflows from Srisailam were measured at 63.475 cusecs and outflows at 50,120 cusecs