Srisailam opens gates 6th time in 2 months
Torrential rains in the past few days in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states flooded the Srisailam reservoir necessitating lifting of four crest gates on Sunday.
This is the sixth time that these gates have been opened in a span of two months. Srisailam dam Superintendent Engineer Chandrasekhar Rao said that historically the month of October often sees floods in Srisailam upto October 14. “We are geared up for any eventuality,” he said.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, he said that the Central Water Commission’s alerts for the day did not warrant any continuous flood as it was localised and the trend was falling. He said rains between Narayanpur dam and Jurala on the Krishna river, and rains near Mantralayam on the Tungabhadra in the past few days had chiefly contributed to the fresh bout of floods that filled the reservoir to the brim.
Water in the reservoir recorded 884.80 feet against the total reservoir height of 885 feet. The present storage capacity is 214.8450 tmc against its maximum holding capacity of 215 tmc ft.
Instant inflow at source for Srisailam at Jurala was 1,35,597 cusecs while the realised inflows at the dam site was 1,47,573 cusecs.
Four gates of the Srisailam dam were lifted to a height of 10 feet letting out 1,11,932 cusecs. Outflows through AP Power House was 26982 cusecs while Telangana State Power House let out 42378 cusecs. Pothireddy padu head regulator discharged just 7000 cusecs on Sunday, the engineer said.