With heavy to very heavy rains in most of the catchment areas of the Godavari and Krishna basins in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, water level in the main course of the two rivers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is on the rise.
The Central Water Commission (CWC), based on the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast, has indicated that flood in the Godavari at Kanthanapally, the point after the Indravathi joins the main river course, to be about 6.25 lakh cusecs by early hours of Tuesday. At 6 p.m. on Monday, the flood at the Medigadda Barrage, located in the upstream of Kanthanapally, was about 5.34 lakh cusecs with the forecast of rising trend.
The Indravathi river, which contributes most to the Godavari after the Pranahitha, is in spate in Chhattisgarh, with the river flowing above the warning level of 539.50 metres at Jagdalpur and is forecast to cross the danger level of 540.8 metres by early on Tuesday.
With contribution from the Manjira, Kaddam, Peddavagu and the Pranahitha, the flood at Polavaram is forecast to be over 6.55 lakh cusecs by late on Monday. According to the Irrigation Department authorities of Telangana, Singur and Nizamsagar projects were getting a moderate flood of 5,735 and 8,000 cusecs, respectively, at 6 p.m. on Monday and Sriramsagar was getting 41,000 cusecs followed by Kaddam 21,000 cusecs and Lower Manair 10,800 cusecs.
As a result, the Yellampally Barrage in the upstream of Medigadda was getting a flood of over 1.74 lakh cusecs at 8 p.m. on Monday and the discharge was over 1.86 lakh cusecs.
The IMD has predicted very heavy to extremely heavy rains in Telangana and has alerted for water level rise in the Godavari Basin in Adilabad, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Jagital, Jayashankar-Bhupalpalle, Kumram Bheem-Asifabad, Karimnagar, Mahabubabad, Mancherial, Medak, Mulugu, Nizamabad, Rajanna-Sircilla, Peddapalli, Nirmal, Siddipet and Warangal districts for the next two-three days.
Krishna Basin
With increase in flood to Almatti, Tungabhadra and Narayanpur following heavy rains in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the discharge at the dams has gone up to 75,000 cusecs, 1.1 lakh cuecs and 81,000 cusecs, respectively. A steady flow of over 1.38 lakh cusecs was reaching Srisailam, having a storage of 212.92 tmc ft against its capacity of 215.81 tmc ft, with discharge of flood through one spillway gate, power houses of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana besides drawals from Pothireddypaddy and Handri-Neeva systems.
The storage of Nagarjunasagar in the downstream of Srisailam has crossed 269 tmc ft against its capacity of 312 tmc ft and the spillway discharge is likely to be taken up by the week-end.
