VIJAYAPURA: Despite scanty rainfall, the Almatti Dam, one of the largest reservoirs in the state, filled up to the brim on Wednesday evening. The water level reached the dam’s maximum of 519.60 metre and the total storage capacity of 123.081 tmcft.
Inflow into the dam began only on July 12. To fill various small dams and tanks as a precautionary measure, water is being discharged from the crest gates. The Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd (KBJNL) started releasing water into canals from July 27 and will continue to do so in a regulated manner till November 23.
On Thursday, the dam received 2,153 tmcft of water and all of it was discharged. Due to heavy rain in Maharashtra and the Western Ghats in the last week of July, the dam has been receiving over 1.5 lakh cusecs of water every day. With the inflow declining from the first week of August, the outflow was also reduced to store water to fill up the dam.
Meanwhile, the newly constituted Irrigation Consultative Committee (ICC), which will regulate and monitor water release for irrigation purposes, is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Monday at the Managing Director’s office of Upper Krishna Project in Almatti.
The meeting will be chaired by Excise Minister RB Timmapur, who is also ICC chairman. MLAs and MPs of riparian taluks of dams are members of the committee. MLAs, MLCs and MPs of Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Koppal, Raichur, Yadgir and Kalaburagi too are members.