Prakasam barrage nears full level, projects on Krishna to brim over

Vijayawada: The water level in Prakasam barrage hit 56.63ft-mark as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 57.05ft on Monday.

With inflows from Pattiseema as well as from rains in catchment area, the Prakasam barrage is receiving 4,853 cusec of water whereas outflows from the barrage stands at 5,202 cusec as the officials released water to irrigation canals.

On the other hand, hopes of inflows into other major projects on Krishna river revived with heavy rainfall in neighbouring states in the catchment area of the Krishna in the last three days. Almatti and Narayanapur reservoirs were filled with water being released to downstream. Jurala, the first major project in Telangana, is likely to receive full inflows by Tuesday morning.

While inflows into Almatti standing at 76,305 cusec, officials are releasing 91,942 cusec of water to downstream and to irrigation canals. The Narayanapur project is receiving 86,243 cusec of water from Almatti. With heavy rainfall recorded in the last 72 hours in the catchment areas of the Krishna and its tributaries, the inflows may continue for a week, said officials.

The Jurala project is likely to receive more than 60,000 cusec of water by Tuesday. The project is likely to reach its FRL level in two days and Srisailam is likely to get first major inflows of the season by Thursday with hopes of present inflows to continue for another week. The Srisailam project is almost at dead storage level with a flood cushion of 184.77 TMC of water. It is unlikely that the project will get to FRL level with present inflows unless further rainfall is recorded in the catchment areas. AP projects need 595 TMC of water from the Krishna and its tributaries.