HYDERABAD: In a move set to benefit farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the State governments have decided to release water for agriculture from the left and right canals of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) from Sunday.
Telangana State Education Minister G Jagadish Reddy and AP State Irrigation Minister Anil Kumar Yadav will lift the canal gates, after which Jagadish Reddy will also release water through the LLC and AMR canals.
Both State governments took a decision to this effect as the NSP is expected to receive more water in the coming days, due to heavy inflows from the Almatti and Tungabhadra dams.
The outflows from Narayanapur increased to 6,25,200 cusecs on Saturday evening, while the outflows from Tungabhadra were 2,12,625 cusecs. The inflows to NSP, which were 3,94,403 cusecs, are expected to continue. As against its capacity of 312.05 tmcft, the current level at NSP is 159.12 tmcft.
A Central Water Commission (CWC) advisory on Saturday stated that due to heavy rainfall upstream of the Krishna and Bhima basin in the last 13-to-14 days, along with a heavy rainfall warning for the coming five days, heavy inflows are expected in the Krishna and Bhima rivers.
According to official sources in Nalgonda, under the left canal, the total ayacut in combined Nalgonda district was 3 lakh acres, and in the combined Khammam district, it was 6 lakh acres.