KURNOOL: Heavy inflows continued into Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala and Prakasam Barrage on Krishna River on Saturday following heavy rain in upper catchment areas.
People in low lying-areas along the river have been put on alert.
However, by Saturday night, the inflows and outflows in the Srisailam project subsided. The situation in other projects downstream Srisailam project is expected to improve by Sunday afternoon.
For the past one month, the Srisailam project has been receiving copious inflows and the water levels are near full reservoir level.
On Friday evening, the flood levels were increasing with heavy inflows from both Jurala and Sunkesula, but since Saturday morning, the trend has been on the decline.
The flood discharge, which was at 3,73,392 cusecs at 9 am with 10 crest gates lifted at a height of 10 feet, reduced gradually.
At 3 pm, it reduced to 3,19,941 cusecs and the dam officials closed two gates. At 4 pm, it further reduced to 2,63,927 cusecs and two more gates were closed and by 6 pm it fell to 2,08,845 cusecs and only four gates remain lifted.
The dam officials are contemplating closing them depending the flood level.
In the meantime, the Telangana government officials were drawing 2,400 cusecs of water from the Srisailam dam through the Mahatma Gandhi Kalvakurti Lift Irrigation (MGKLI), while the AP officials are drawing 2.026 cusecs of water from Malayala lift irrigation scheme and 24,000 cusecs of water from Pothiredypadu Head Regulator. Heavy inflows into Srisailam project has helped the hydroelectric power generation.
Meanwhile, 12 gates of Nagarjuna Sagar were lifted to let out the floodwater at a discharge rate of 2,59,619 cusecs at 6 pm.
With increasing inflows for the past four days and heavy rain that lashed the catchment areas, authorities at Prakasam Barrage released floodwater from the barrage downstream at a discharge rate of 2,23,924 cusecs.
District administrations of both Krishna and Guntur have been put on high alert and the officials are on standby to evacuate people from low-lying areas on short notice.
On the other hand, the water levels in the Godavari river are also steadily increasing following heavy rain in Maharashtra and Telangana. However, it will take some time for the floodwater to reach Dowleswaram.