River Krishna in spate; Srisailam, Prakasam barrage gates lifted

PRAKASAM: Nine gates of the Srisailam dam and 70 gates of the Prakasam barrage have been lifted on Thursday as the Krishna river is in spate due to continuous rains in the two Telugu states.

According to the information furnished by the Irrigation department, the Srisailam project had recorded an inflow of 3,50,541 cusecs and an outflow of 3,14,299 cusecs with the lifting of nine gates to a height of 10 feet. The remaining flood water was released to the left and right banks of the Srisailam to generate power. The officials said that 17.761-MU was generated at the left bank and 15,201-MU at the right bank. The water level in the project reached 884.800-ft against a total of 885-ft with water storage of 214 TMC.

Prakasam Barrage recorded an inflow of 1,04,126 lakh cusecs at 6 am on Thursday and 88,750 cusecs of surplus water was discharged into the downstream by lifting 50 gates by two feet and 20 gates by one feet after leaving 15,376 cusecs to the delta canals.

The officials said that the flood discharge from Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala was recorded as 3.40 lakh cusecs and 3.30 lakh cusecs and was likely to increase up to 4 lakh cusecs.

The executive engineer and River conservator of Krishna Central Division alerted the concerned officers for taking up precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incidents along the Krishna River basin both upstream and downstream of Prakasam Barrage.

On the other hand, the flood water increased in Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir. The Andhra Pradesh Disaster Management Authority MD Dr. BR Ambedkar sent two NDRF teams to Anantapur as there could be inundation of low-lying areas. It was advised that people should be moved to safer places.