VIJAYAWADA: People living in low lying areas downstream of Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada have been put on alert and officials machinery is put on standby to evacuate people from low-lying areas if necessary, with 70-crest gates of the barrage lifted on Tuesday morning to release the flood-water.
With heavy inflows into Pulichintala project from Nagarjuna Sagar, 14 gates of Pulichintala projects were opened to let the floodwater downstream at a discharge rate of 4,48,080 cusecs into Prakasam barrage.
“Inflows to Prakasam Barrage are increasing hour by hour, with gates of Pulichintala lifted and large volumes of floodwater released downstream. As a precautionary measure, we have lifted all the 70 gates to release water at 25,000 cusecs initially and the same will increase in the next few hours,” Krishna Delta Chief Engineer R Satish Kumar said.
Before lifting off the crest gates of Prakasam Barrage and releasing water downstream, a siren was sounded for 10 minutes to alert people. People in all the 26 river islets downstream of the barrage were put on high alert. Officials said in all 39 vulnerable points on the flood banks of Krishna river were identified on both sides of the river downstream and upstream and they were fortified with sandbags. Krishna district collector Imtiyaz is closely monitoring the situation and said all measures are in place to address any sort of contingency
According to the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Agency, at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the flood discharge from Prakasam Barrage at 36,500 cusecs while inflows stood at 4, 48,080 cusecs. At Pulichintala flood discharge was at 4, 48,080 cusecs and inflows stood at 5, 36,857 cusecs. Similarly, at Nagarjuna Sagar project, the flood discharge stood at 6, 06,532 cusecs while inflows were at 8, 03,538 cusecs. At Srisailam project flood discharge was at 8, 73,648 cusecs, while inflows were at 9,88,176, of which 2,18,991 cusecs were from Sunkesula (Tungabhadra) and 7,69,185 cusecs, was from Jurala project.
Irrigation officials in Kurnool district said that flood flow in Tungabhadra is decreasing gradually and the inflows into Srisailam project are expected to further decrease in the next 24 hours.