Water for Sagar Left Canal to be released from today

The authorities of Nagarjunasagar (NS) project have decided, in consultation with the Revenue and Agriculture department officials and the elected representatives of erstwhile Nalgonda and Khammam districts, to give six wettings for raising kharif crops in the 6.25 lakh acres ayacut under the Left Canal in the State.

Official sources stated that they have estimated the demand of water to meet six wettings in the on-and-off method at 34.19 tmc ft. However, the provision for another 5.81 tmc ft has also been made to meet the peak demands during the kharif cultivation in the ayacut. “The water will be supplied for 68 days in all to the ayacut in the on-and-off method from August 23 to November 23 with the first wetting period stretching for 23 days and the subsequent five wetting periods for nine days each,” a senior irrigation engineer told The Hindu.

Minister for Energy and Scheduled Castes Development G. Jagadish Reddy will formally release water to the Left Canal (Lalbahadur Canal) on Thursday morning. As the release of flood from Srisailam is continuing, the water level in Nagarjunasagar has improved to 553.6 ft against the full reservoir level of 590 ft and the storage stood at 217.33 tmc ft as against its capacity of 312.05 tmc ft at 8 pm on Wednesday with inflows measured at over 1.84 lakh cusecs.

A total of 17,300 cusecs water being released from Nagarjunasagar as outflows to Jawahar Canal (right main canal – 6,218 cusecs), Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project (AMRP or SLBC – 2,200 cusecs) and power house (8,870 cusecs).

It is also being planned to release water for the Low Level Canal to fill tanks along with the release to AMRP.

The discharge of flood through the spillway of Srisailam resumed after 7 a.m. on Wednesday to let out about 82,000 cusecs of water by lifting three crest gates for 10 ft height each. One more gate was lifted for the same height after 4 p.m. to increase the discharge to over 1.09 lakh cusecs.

The spillway release was closed after 11 a.m. on Tuesday (August 21) after taking it up from 9 a.m. on August 18. However, the discharge of flood through the power houses is on from July 28 in different quantities from time to time.

Meanwhile, the water level in Sriramsagar project in the Godavari basin improved further to 1,086 ft at 7 p.m. on Wednesday against the FRL of 1,091 ft and the capacity was up to 70.03 tmc ft against its capacity of 90.31 tmc ft. About 5,850 cusecs was being released to canals.