With the water level in the Bheema increasing with the release of water from reservoirs, the Yellamma temple in Mannur village in Afzalpur taluk located on its banks has submerged now.
According to officials of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited (KNNL), Maharashtra released 1.50 lakh cusecs of water from Ujjani Dam built across the Bhima and 75,000 cusecs of water from the Veer Dam built across the Nira River on Tuesday evening.
The water released from Ujjani Dam reached the Sonna bridge-cum-barrage built across the Bhima in Afzalpur taluk on Wednesday night.
The officials discharged 40,000 cusecs of water from the Sonna barrage after the reservoir received heavy inflow from Maharashtra. The storage capacity of Sonna bridge-cum-barrage is 3.1 tmcft. At present, it has 2.60 tmcft of water.
The officials also said that some of the villages and the bridge across the Bhima in Afzalpur taluk, Kalaburagi taluk, Jewargi and Chittapur taluk would be submerged. Villagers on the riverbanks have been alerted.
Deputy Commissioner Venkatesh Kumar visited some of the villages on Tuesday and directed officials to take all possible precautionary measures in the wake of discharge of over 2.25 lakh cusecs of water in the Bhima river course.