Karnataka - Bellary   

Tungabhadra reservoir filling up fast

Staff Correspondent

The reservoir is filling up at least a month earlier this year

Spectacular sight: Following good inflow, the Tungabahdra Dam at Hospet is just short of four feet to reach the full reservoir level of 1,633 feet.

BELLARY: Owing to copious rain in the catchment area of river Tungabhadra, spread up to Shimoga district, the Tungabhadra Dam at Hospet is expected to be full, at least by a month earlier this year.

Usually, the dam used to reach the full reservoir level of 1,633 feet in mid August every year. Inflow into the reservoir for the past 15 days has been very good with the dam receiving over 70,000 cusecs of water daily. During the past 24 hours, the reservoir has received an inflow of 91,427 cusecs taking the level to 1,629.41 feet, just short of less than four feet to reach the full reservoir level.

Going by the good inflow, people expect that the gates of the reservoir will be opened very soon and are eagerly awaiting to take a glimpse of the spectacular sight of water gushing out from the 33 out of the total 34 crest gates. (The usual trend followed was to open the gates on August 15).

The Tungabhadra reservoir, an inter-State project, is a main source of irrigation for the chronically drought-prone districts of Koppal, Raichur and Bellary in the State and also of Anantapur, Kurnool and Kadapa districts of Andhra Pradesh and serves the drinking water requirements since it was constructed in 1953.

Around 90 tmcft of water was augmented in the reservoir on Friday morning. However, according to the decision taken by the Tungabhadra Irrigation Consultative Committee, water is being let into the canals from Thursday morning.

Though the original capacity of the reservoir is 133 tmcft (presently it has come down to 104 tmcft due to heavy accumulation of silt over the years) the utilisation has been fixed to 212 tmcft (excluding evaporation losses) keeping in view the two fillings during the monsoon and post-monsoon.

The water is shared in the ratio of 65:35 between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Water released into the canals on the left bank of the reservoir is exclusively for Koppal and Raichur districts. The water released into the right bank canals is shared between Bellary district and the districts of Andhra Pradesh.

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