85 Medigadda gates opened as Pranahita inflows from Maharashtra swell Telangana reservoirs

Hyderabad: Inflows into Telangana’s major reservoirs surged on Thursday as heavy rains in Maharashtra pushed the Pranahita and Godavari rivers into spate.

At the Medigadda barrage in the Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, inflows touched 6.65 lakh cusecs by Thursday evening. Authorities lifted 85 gates to release an equal volume downstream. At Kaleshwaram, the Godavari was flowing at 10.6 metres.

Downstream, the river’s level at Bhadrachalam rose to 25.8 feet by evening.

On the Krishna basin, the Jurala project in the Gadwal district received 1.07 lakh cusecs. Officials lifted 12 gates, releasing 1.13 lakh cusecs through canals and hydel generation. The reservoir held 7.4 TMC out of its 9 TMC capacity.

At Srisailam, inflows stood at 1.75 lakh cusecs. Three gates were lifted by ten feet. A total of 1,70,347 cusecs were being discharged via power generation and release through Pothireddypadu and MGKLI channels. The storage stood at 203.4 TMC.

Nagarjunasagar recorded 1,20,191 cusecs in inflow. If levels continue to rise, the project’s gates could be reached by Friday evening. By Thursday, water levels reached 541.2 feet (190.8 TMC), against a full level of 590 feet (312 TMC).

A combined 8,906 cusecs were being discharged via the left canal (3,202 cusecs), SLBC (1,500 cusecs), and the main hydel station (4,204 cusecs).

Power generation on the Krishna River alone touched 26 million units on Thursday.