HYDERABAD: After three decades, the Nizamsagar project reached full reservoir level (FRL) as early as in July on Sunday. With the Manjeera bringing copious inflows, officials opened 14 gates to release water. After receiving updates of inflows, they closed six gates.
The century-old Nizamsagar project was constructed across river Manjeera at Banjapally village in erstwhile Nizamabad district (presently in Kamareddy district) by the Nizam government. Due to several projects coming up upstream of river Manjeera in Karnataka, inflows into Nizamsagar gradually fell.
Singur, a balancing reservoir of Nizamsagar, was constructed in Medak district but was utilised to supply drinking water to Hyderabad for three decades. As a result, the Nizamsagar project used to get filled only in late August.
To supplement the Nizamsagar main canal, the Kalyani reservoir was constructed in Yellareddy Assembly constituency. The TRS government planned to fill the Nizamsagar project with water from the Kaleshwaram scheme.
This year, widespread rainfall in catchment areas and upstream of the Manjeera increased the inflows. As a result, water at the Nizamsagar project reached 1402.92 feet on Sunday as against its FRL of 1405.00 ft. The reservoir currently holds 14.881 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water.
Nizamsagar project assistant executive engineer Shiva Prasad said that they were releasing all the 56,000 cusecs of water that the project was receiving. Irrigation department chief engineer T.Srinivas visited the Nizamsagar project on Sunday and reviewed the flood situation.
The large volume of water flowing down the Manjeera submerge the Nizam-era inter-state bridge at Salur near Bodhan in Nizamabad district, bring traffic between Telangana and Maharashtra on the Nizamabad-Nanded highway to a halt. Another bridge across the Manjeera at Salur was abandoned two years ago due to technical problems.
Water at the Sriramsagar project (SRSP) reached 1087.6 ft on Sunday. The project is receiving around 82,740 cusecs and officials released 74,952 cusecs downstream into the Godavari by opening 18 gates. The rated capacity for the SRSP is 90 tmc ft and the project now has 75.145 tmc ft.
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