The Hindu : Karnataka / Raichur News : Water release in TLBC increased to 650 cusecs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Raichur

Water release in TLBC increased to 650 cusecs

By Our Staff Correspondent

RAICHUR, JULY 14. The volume of water released into the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal was increased to 650 cusecs today to enable farmers to take up sowing in the command area. The release would be increased by 100 cusecs each day over the next one week to maintain a maximum discharge of 3,500 cusecs in the canal at the end of fifteen days, official sources told The Hindu .

The Tungabhadra Irrigation Consultative Committee, which convened a meeting on July 2, had decided to release about 500 cusecs of water into the canal by July 5. This they said would solve the drinking water problem in the villages and camps along the command area in Gangavathi, Sindhanoor, Manvi, and Raichur taluks. Later it was decided to increase the flow from July 15 to enable sowing for the kharif crop in the command area.

Water was expected to reach the lower reaches of the canal (the 144th mile near Raichur) by the first week of August. There will be a constant release of water till November end, the sources said.

The reservoir level touched 1,612 ft. on Wednesday as against its maximum capacity of 1,633 ft. It had an inflow of 12,500 cusecs. The storage level in the reservoir is now 44 tmcft. as against a maximum of 112 tmcft.

Sources said that the ongoing repair work in the main canal had been delayed by ten days owing to heavy rains in the command area. The officials have been asked to speed up repair work and complete it by July 20. However, this would not hamper the release of water into the canal, they added.

There would be no problem in providing the required volume of water to the farmers at the tail-end of the canal, as there was less pressure from the ayacutdars after heavy rainfall in the command areas in the past month, sources said.

Three lakh acres in the command area would be irrigated during the kharif season. Paddy will be cultivated on a large scale in the upper reaches of the command area.

Light irrigated crops such as sunflower, hybrid jowar, and groundnut will be cultivated in command areas at the tail-end of the canal.

The ayacutdars in the command area of Gangavathi taluk in Koppal district, who had completed land preparation last month, have been busy in the transplantation of paddy, while the ayacutdars in the command area of Sindhanoor, Manvi and Raichur taluks are still in preparing the land and nurturing paddy seedlings.

However, good rainfall in the past month had also encouraged the ayacutdars in the tail-end regions to take up sowing of hybrid jowar and sunflower.

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Water release in TLBC increased to 650 cusecs