With heavy rains all around, river Godavari was in spate both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh causing floods in East Godavari district and cutting off several villages while massive inflow in river Krishna from upstream areas of Karnataka has brightened the chance of the massive Srisailam dam getting filled after several years.
The inflow into Srisailam on Friday afternoon stood at 3.11 lakh cusecs and outflow at 1 lakh cusecs.
Against the full reservoir capacity of 885 feet the level of water in the reservoir had reached 877 feet, irrigation department officials said.
With the release of water the hydel power generation plants on both the sides of the project were working and authorities were also releasing water to three different lift irrigation canals. If the inflows continue at the same level for the next three days not only the project was likely to get filled to the maximum level but water may also be release to the Nagarjuna Sagar project.
While water was coming from Jurala project of Telangana, the main inflow was from Tungbhadra dam in Karnataka where the officials have opened all the 33 gates as the water had reached the maximum level. Officials said that it was first time in fifteen years that all the 33 gates of the project were opened discharging 2.3 lakh cusecs of water. After the fresh heavy rains in the catchment area of Tungbhadar, the dam was getting 2.10 lakh cusecs of flood water, a record of sorts. There was 98 tmcft of water in the project, at present, officials said.
Meanwhile with heavy rains in the upstream areas the river Godavari was also spate in Bhadrachalam district of Telangan and East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
Bhavesh Misra, the sub collector of Bhadradari-Kothagudem district said that river had crossed the first danger mark of 47.5 feet of Friday morning and was likely to cross the second danger mark of 48 feet by this evening. According to the Central Water Commission the maximum level of river was likely to reach 50 feet before receding but was unlikely to cross the third danger mark of 53 feet. The administration was fully alert to face any situation, the sub collector said.
The road connectivity was affected in many areas and water was overflowing in Chintur area cutting off villages from outside world.
Meanwhile in neighboring Andhra Pradesh several villages in Konaseema region of East Godavari district was cut off due to the floods in river Godavari. The river had crossed danger mark I at Dhowleshwaram barrage near Rajahmundry. The water level at the barrage had crossed 11.75 feet on Friday afternoon and flood waters had entered several low lying areas. The officials have started evacuating the people from marooned island villages in Konaseema region.
As Dhowleshwaram was the last barrage before river Godavari joins the sea, one million cusecs of water was being discharged into the sea.