Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Krishna in spate again

Staff Reporter

Revenue machinery in district put on high alert

VIJAYAWADA: The revenue machinery in Krishna district has been put on high alert with irrigation authorities sounding the flood alarm at Prakasam Barrage here on Saturday.

Vijayawada irrigation circle superintending engineer J. Rajendra Prasad received a message that the crest gates of Nagarjunasagar were opened to release 3.2 lakh cusecs of water at 11 a.m.

Continuous rain in the Western Ghats has resulted in heavy inflow of water into Alamatti and Tungabhadhra projects.

The Srisailam project was receiving an inflow of 3,31,984 lakh cusecs jointly from Jurala and Tungabhadra reservoirs. The same volume of water was being released to Nagarjunasagar. Since Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar were filled to their full capacity, the entire inflow was being released to Prakasam Barrage, Mr.Prasad told The Hindu here on Saturday.

Discharge increased

The flood at Prakasam Barrage began increasing rapidly from 1 a.m. onwards. The discharge at the barrage was increased from 36,250 cusecs to 50,750 cusecs to maintain the mandatory 12-foot level by lifting all 70 crest gates by 1 foot between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. Twenty gates had to be lifted by an additional one foot between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. to increase the discharge to 64,250 cusecs. This situation continued till 10 a.m. and then 40 of the 70 gates had to be lifted by an additional 1 foot to increase the discharge to 77,750 cusecs.

The remaining 30 gates were left in the same position, that is 1 foot from riverbed.

Crest gates lifted

"The crest gates may have to be lifted by 1 foot at a time as per the requirement.

All 70 gates will have to be lifted by 3 to 4 feet to discharge 2 lakh cusecs and 6 to 7 feet to discharge 3 lakh to 4 lakh cusecs," said deputy superintending engineer K. Rajendra Prasad.

He said that the first warning would be sounded only after the discharge at the barrage crossed the 3.97 lakh cusecs mark.

The farmlands abutting lanka (island) villages downstream the barrage would begin to get flooded once the discharge crossed 2 lakh cusecs and the revenue machinery had to be alert, he said.

The Collector, Joint Collector and Municipal Commissioner had been informed of the 3.5 lakh cusec flood that was expected to reach here from Nagarjunasagar on Sunday afternoon, the DSE said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

UGC's `Inflibnet' to cover 1,600 educational institutions
Call 1098 to help children in distress
Krishna in spate again
Project for youth, women launched
Indian team needs an all-rounder: Srikanth
Ponnala visits Prakasam barrage
Visaalandhra to publish works of Bengali writer
Left parties demand ration cards for all eligible persons
ICFAI's placement scheme for its students
Around the City
In Vijayawada Today

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu