ANANTAPUR: The Srisailam reservoir continued to receive constant inflows of water, of around 2.74 lakh cusecs, from the Tungabhadra and Almatii projects located upstream of the Krishna basin. The height of the water reached 853.31 feet, with a capacity of 87.51 TMC, against a total capacity of 215 TMC, as of Saturday.
However, the outflow is only 31.784 cusecs, due to power generation, raising the possibility of reaching its capacity if the inflows continue unabated.
With the Almatti reservoir logging a capacity of 91.35 TMC, 1.5 lakh cusecs are being discharged downstream into the Srisailam dam. Authorities estimate that the dam will hit capacity in a week.
Meanwhile, the historic Sangameswara Swamy temple, located near Kothapalle in the Nandyal district, on the backwaters of Srisailam, was on the brink of being submerged due to inflows into the dam.
The Tungabhadra reservoir is currently at 95 per cent of its capacity, with inflows of 1.67 lakh cusecs and outflow of 1.44 lakh cusecs. Low-lying areas in the vicinity of the reservoir have been alerted.
Kurnool collector M. Koteswar Rao inspected the river at Mantralayam, where a historic temple shut its Pushkar gates to disallow devotees from venturing into the water for a holy dip.
Villages surrounding the Sunkesula dam were being also evacuated to prevent untoward incidents.
The rise of the water level of the Tungabhadra river also shut access to Nava Brindavan temple, an island near Anegundi of Hampi.
Officials said that several historic structures were about to be submerged and access has been cut to reach the spots and temples in Hampi, where the erstwhile Vijayanagar Empire was centred.
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