The Kurnool Irrigation Superintending Engineer P. Sree Ramachandra Murthy on Thursday sent a formal letter to the Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation) seeking 8 tmcft of water to be released daily from November 10 at the rate of 6,000 cusecs per day to meet the water needs at 21 ghats during the forthcoming Tungabhadra Pushkaram from November 20 to December 1.
This quantum of water will be deducted from the share of Andhra Pradesh to be received through the Tungabhadra Left Lower Main Canal. Water will be released from the Tungabhadra dam from November 10 and it takes 10 days for it to travel to the Andhra Pradesh border near Mantralayam. There is no infrastructure to store this water anywhere ahead of the Puskar Ghats to release as and when needed. All this water will flow into the Srisailam dam eventually.
Meanwhile, Collector G. Veerapandian conducted a teleconference with all the officers responsible for the completion of work at the ghats latest by November 13. On Thursday, he directed all the departments that had not yet floated tenders for procurement of material or construction work to initiate measures so that work was completed in all aspects one week ahead of the start of the pushkarams on November 20.
The Irrigation Superintending Engineer has been visiting the construction sites of the Pushkar Ghats daily and on Wednesday he visited the Sankalp Bagh Ghat.
