Vijayawada: Heavy rainfall in upper catchment areas are causing major rivers like Godavari, Krishna and Penna to swell. A second flood warning was likely to be issued on Godavari in Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram.The water level was expected to touch 13.75 feet with a discharge of over 13 lakh cusecs downstream into the sea in the early hours on Friday. Godavari river conservator Srinivas said, “We are expecting the water level in the river to rise further, up to Friday evening, and it may start receding thereafter. We have initiated all steps to meet any emergency situation.” At 9pm, the water level at the barrage was at 11.98 lakh cusecs and the level was rising. At Bhadrachalam, the level touched 52.10ft at 5pm. The level was falling by Thursday night. Meanwhile, there was relief about the flood situation in Krishna river at Prakasam Barrage, as the water level started receding after reaching the highest in the morning at over 5 lakh cusecs of discharge downstream into the sea. By 9pm, the water level receded with a discharge of 4.80 lakh cusecs with the Pulichinthala project inflows touching four lakh cusecs. However, the first flood warning at Prakasam Barrage continues until the discharge touches 3.97 lakh cusecs, may be by Friday evening or so. On the other hand, the authorities in all the vulnerable districts covering mainly the Godavari and Krishna rivers are on a high alert to ensure safety to the people even by evacuating them to relief centres based on need. Meanwhile, AP reservoirs were receiving huge inflows of water with current storage of water at 776.32 tmc-ft (77.63 per cent) against the gross capacity of 1,000 tmc-ft while the last year’s storage was pegged at 722.43 tmc-ft (72.24 per cent) on Thursday — showing a marginal increase in water availability in the reservoirs. The Srisailam project has recorded a 197.46 tmc-ft level (91.50 per cent against gross capacity at FRL of 215. 81 tmc-ft with an outflow of 5.17 lakh cusecs. Nagarjuna Sagar received 291.96 tmc-ft of water (93.56 per cent) against gross capacity at an FRL of 312.05 tmc-ft, with an outflow of 4.32 lakh cusecs of water. Pulichintala has 31.92 tmc-ft of water (69.74 per cent) against gross capacity at FRL of 45.77 tmc-ft with an outflow of 4.01 lakh cusecs of water. Prakasam Barrage filled to the brim with 3.07 tmc-ft of water with outflow of 5.08 lakh cusecs. The Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram was also filled to the brim with 2.93 tmc-ft of water with an outflow of 11.12 lakh cusecs.
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