All reservoirs on Godavari brimming, gates lifted

Hyderabad: All the major irrigation projects in Godavari basin in north Telangana were in spate, prompting Irrigation department officials to lift gates in most projects on Tuesday. The department also issued a red alert for people living in areas downstream of Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) on Monday night asking them not to go near project areas and river banks.

Officials lifted the gates in more than half a dozen reservoirs including Kadem project in Nirmal district and Medigadda barrage in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, to release water downstream. At Medigadda barrage, officials opened 79 of the 85 gates to let out 8.5 lakh cusecs of water into Godavari River.

Kamareddy Chief Engineer T Srinivas said nine of the 48 gates of Nizamsagar Dam were opened to release 66,000 cusecs of water while six gates of Kaulas Nala project in the district were also opened. Nirmal Irrigation Superintending Engineer D Susheel Kumar said they were discharging 30,000 cusecs from Kadem project through three gates.
The inflows were high and officials were letting out water after assessing the levels in the reservoirs. In Nizamabad alone, as many as 2,000 water bodies received surplus water this monsoon, officials said.

Jagitial Chief Engineer (Irrigation) Kothe Sudhakar Reddy told Telangana Today that the SRSP was receiving 2.90 lakh inflows from the catchment areas in Maharashtra. Since the project was receiving heavy inflows, the department was releasing 3,99,840 cusecs of water downstream through 33 gates.

Since water released from SRSP was reaching Sripada Yellampalli Project after traveling 105 km, officials of Sripada Yellampalli Project lifted 40 gates and were discharging seven lakh cusecs of water. The gates of Sundilla and Annaram were also opened.

In Krishna basin, five gates of Priyadarshini Jurala Project (PJP) in Krishna basin were lifted to release 59,533 cusecs of water.

Irrigation teams to inspect water bodies

Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar on Tuesday reviewed the water levels in reservoirs in the wake of incessant rains in the State.

In a video conference with department officials, chief engineers informed Rajat Kumar that the situation was under control and no damages or major problems were reported so far.

A few breaches that took place in some areas were being attended to on priority. The engineers were also instructed to maintain constant vigil and to utilise their delegated financial powers to attend to any emergency.

The department constituted 15 teams of departmental engineers to immediately inspect all the 185 lakes in GHMC and HMDA limits and take preventive measures wherever necessary.

The teams will inspect all the lakes and ponds allocated to them and submit their reports to the government with their recommendations in two days. The teams should also submit their daily situation report to the Engineer-in-Chief (General) and Chief Engineer, Rajat Kumar said.

The department has also requested the citizens to report any damage to irrigation structures to its flood control room – 040-23390794.

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