NIZAMABAD:It is for the first time that river Godavari received flood water in the second week of June itself after monsoon made its landfall in Telangana.The river swelled after catchment areas of Maharashtra, including Babli project situated in Nanded district, received bountiful rain leading to flooding of local areas. As a result, the five gates of Babli project were opened on Monday in a phased manner in order to release one lakh cusecs of water into river Godavari. The flood water is expected reach Sri Ram Sagar project (SRSP) on Tuesday afternoon, which is situated in Balkonda Assembly constituency in the district.
SRSP superintending engineer (SE) G Srinivas Reddy said that Nanded district received heavy rainfall. This increased the water level at Babli project. Nanded district officials took a stock of the situation and decided to release the flood water from the project. They started the process in the morning and it continued till late afternoon. By evening, the flow of water was brought under control and the gates were closed by night.
Godavari receives flood water from the upstream projects in Maharashtra, which enters SRSP in the month of July and continues till September end. The gates of Babli project are opened every year between July and October. With monsoon hitting early this year, the gates too have been opened early.
At present, the water level of SRSP is just 7 tmc feet against its total capacity of 90 tmc feet. With the floodwater being released from the upstream projects, SRSP is all set to get at least 5 tmc feet water. This is said to help the project avoid facing dead storage levels.
SRSP received only 65 tmc feet water last year from upstream areas. The authorities faced a tough time to provide water for second crop in the erstwhile five districts. “We are closely monitoring the flood situation along with Nanded district officials and we are well prepared to receive the inflows from upstream projects,’’ SRSP SE said.
Don’t leave HQs: Harish to officials
With the expectation that the Sriram Sagar project (SRSP) will receive around 30,000 cusecs of water due to heavy rains in Nanded in Maharashtra, irrigation minister T Harish Rao on Monday directed irrigation officials to be on high alert and not to leave the headquarters. “Heavy rains will occur in the state in the next few days. All irrigation engineers and revenue staff should be on high alert. Irrigation SEs, EEs, DEEs and AEEs should not leave headquarters,” Rao said and directed engineers to inspect tanks which were receiving heavy water. He also inspected Kaleshwaram project work.
‘Make arrangements to shift people’
Bhadrachalam: At a meeting here on Monday, minister for roads and buildings Thummala Nageswara Rao asked officials to make arrangements to shift people living along the Godavari as there are chances of the river getting flooded.