Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Situation grim in Krishna basin reservoirs: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Sept. 23. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has painted a grim picture of Andhra Pradesh reservoirs based on Krishna basin such as Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar, which are partially empty even towards the end of the South West monsoon.

In a suo motu statement, Mr. Naidu quantified the shortfall suffered by the two giant projects so far at 525 tmcft, due to lack of inflows following deficit rainfall in the catchment. Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar received most of their inflows during July-August and to some extent in September-October. Their normal inflows during July-August would be around 600 tmcft but this tumbled to an unprecedented low of 75 tmcft this year.

The main catchment of the Krishna serving Andhra Pradesh consists of five districts in Karnataka - Bagalkote, Belgaum, Bidar, Bijapur and Dharwad, and they had suffered a rainfall deficit of 57-62, per cent till now, according to information available with the Irrigation Department.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu described the current year as bad for the Krishna and detailed the steps taken by him to tide over the water crisis climaxing in his Bangalore visit where a request was made with his Karnataka counterpart, S. M. Krishna, for releases from Alamatti in which "certain surpluses are expected over and above their requirements.''

Referring to the follow-up of the Bangalore exercise, the Chief Minister said, a joint meeting of officials from both sides would take place soon for resolving all issues, including the quantum of water to be released and its timing.

Meanwhile, Srisailam, the first point harnessing the Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, is not getting any inflows unless released by Narayanpur of Karnataka through power generation. As there was no generation at this point on Tuesday, the gain by Andhra Pradesh for the day was nil.

Srisailam has a storage up to 837.27 ft, a quantum of 112.50 tmcft as compared to 308 tmcft at full level, and Nagarjunasagar up to 495.5 ft at which level it accounts for 178 tmcft against 408 tmcft at maximum capacity.

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