After 13 years, Srisailam gates lifted in July to discharge flood

Last year, crest gates were lifted on on Aug.19, and a year before on Aug. 9

Spillway discharge of flood at Srisaialm dam, the common reservoir for the two Telugu States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, commenced on Wednesday evening as the project authorities operated two crest gates and lifted them for 10-foot height each to let 53,600 cusecs of water fall majestically into the bucket and rebound into the air before falling into the river course. The engineers of the project performed a ritual (puja) before switching on the motors to operate the gates after 6.30 p.m. as the water storage in the reservoir crossed 200 tmcft against its capacity of 215.8 tmcft and water level crossed 882 feet against the full reservoir level of 885 ft. Along with the spillway discharge, another 65,000 cusecs water was also being let into the river with power generation in the left bank power house of Telangana and right bank power house of Andhra Pradesh. According to the dam authorities, the spillway discharge in July this year has taken place for the first time after 2007 due to flood reaching from the second week of June. Last year, the spillway discharge of flood could begin on August 19 and on August 9 a year before that (2019). The dam was getting over 4.16 lakh cusecs flood being released at Jurala and Tungabhadra dams in the upstream.