GUNTUR: After the Water Resources department officials completed the repair works and the installation of the Stop-Lock gate at the 16th sluice of Pulichintala Project by Saturday, water flow in the project has gradually risen over the past four days.

After the 16th gate of the project was broken, water was released downstream in the project to set up a stop log gate. By the time of the repairs, the water level in the project had dropped to a minimum of five TMCs. And officials had to set up a stop gate on a war footing.

Around two dozen experts from Polavaram and Visakhapatnam were involved in the installation of the stop-lock gate. The preparatory works for installing the stop-lock arrangements were made on Friday and installation works started on Saturday. Eleven iron plates weighing around 30 tonnes each were inserted into the grooves in the sluice walls with the help of a heavy-duty crane.

The water storage in the project reached 17.64 TMC on Tuesday evening as the floodwaters from the upper reaches of Krishna continued gradually. With this, the Pulichintala project was full again and was discharging 18,887 cusecs of water downstream. Copious water was being released to the canals for irrigation purposes as farmers are busy sowing paddy in the Krishna Delta region.

Water was being released at the rate of 1400 cusecs to KEB and Eluru canals, 2200 cusecs to Bandar Canal, 4,000 cusecs to Ryves Canal, 6200 cusecs to Krishna Western Delta, and 200 cusecs to Guntur Canal. Flood water at the rate of 20,000 cusecs was flowing into Prakasam Barrage. Barrage gates were closed to allow water into the canals for irrigation purposes. Irrigation department officials are collecting as much water as needed from the Pulichintala project and storing the remaining water without having to take water from Pattisseema.

According to irrigation experts, the maximum water level of the Pulichintala project will reach 45.77 TMC in a week, while the water level in the Krishna River will rise slightly from the upper reaches. We are reviewing the situation from time to time at the project and taking appropriate action, said Ramesh Babu, SE, Pulichintala Project. We are expecting more inflows from the Nagarjuna Sagar project in the coming days. As the inflows are increasing at Srisailam from the Tungabhadra dam, the Pulichintala project is expected to get more inflows in the coming days, he said.

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