Eight crest gates of the Nagarjunasagar project were lifted to a height of five feet on Wednesday, a second time in the year, with increasing flood in the upstream projects.
Officials were preparing to release water on Thursday, however, with brimming levels, the gates were lifted at around 8.15 p.m.
According to an earlier alert by Nagarjunasagar project Superintending Engineer I. Madhusudan in the afternoon, it was said that the gates would be lifted on Thursday, and one lakh cusecs would be released downstream.
All departments concerned and the villages along the banks of river Krishna too were alerted.
At 6 p.m., the water level was at 588.80 feet, inches away from the full reservoir level of 590 feet. And the storage was 308.46 tmc against the gross 312 tmc capacity.
However, with the inflows rising, just before the operation of the gates at around 8 p.m., the water level rose to 589.20 feet.
According to the bulletin, close to 2.75 lakh cusecs being the inflow from Srisailam project, 1.08 lakh cusecs was discharged downstream.
This year, the gates of NSP were opened on Friday and the reservoir reached its full capacity within four days, by Monday night.
Last year, the project achieved more filling, with record inflows, in just five days, and all its 26 crest gates were lifted.
