Yellampalli flood gates opened
K M Dayashankar
Water lifted from Kaleshwaram project going back into river
All projects receiving steady inflows following rains
PEDDAPALLI: The irrigation authorities have lifted six flood gates of Sripada Yellampalli Project (SYP) in Ramagundam mandal in the district on Wednesday evening to release surplus waters of 16,686 cusecs into the river Godavari downstream.
Against the storage capacity of 20.175 tmcs of water, the project received 19.4530 tmcs of water following the heavy rains in its catchment area and release of surplus waters from the upstream Kadem project on Wednesday evening. The project was receiving 24,408 cusecs of water from its catchment areas.
Initially, the irrigation authorities had lifted two flood gates at the project. Later, it was increased to four and in the evening it was six flood gates. In the downstream, the irrigation authorities had also lifted the floodgates of the Sundilla barrage, Annaram and lastly Medigadda barrages of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project to release surplus waters into the river.
Incidentally, this is the first time that the project flood waters were being released into the river in the month of July when the monsoons have just arrived. It may be recalled that the state government had lifted the water from the Kaleshwaram project to the Sripada Yellampalli Project, Mid Manair Dam and Lower Manair Dam with the start of the rainy season.
Now that the rains have intensified, the surplus waters from all the projects were being released downstream into the river Godavari. It was a huge loss to the state exchequer to fill the projects during the rainy season by spending huge amount on power bill from the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project when everyone knows about the arrival of rains and inflows into the projects.
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