2009 floods haunt Andhra's Kurnool as Tungabhadra dam gates opened

KURNOOL: With river Tungabhadra in Karnataka receiving heavy inflows and Srisailam dam almost filled to the brim, Kurnool city, which had been battered by unprecedented flood havoc in 2009, is on the edge. The city was flooded with backwaters of Srisailam project as the reservoir received more inflows than outflows a decade ago.

The district administration has put villages and towns, including Kurnool, along the river Tungabhadra on high alert as the first flood warning was issued after authorities of Tungabhadra dam released floodwater downstream by lifting four gates. 

On Saturday, 52,000 cusecs of floodwater were released from the dam and, by Sunday afternoon, it might increase to 1.5 lakh cusecs. As on Saturday, the dam was receiving 2.10 lakh cusecs while water level stood at 83.72 TMC as against its FRL of 100.84 TMC. 

Dam authorities alerted the Kurnool district administration by sending first flood warning message so that precautionary measures could be taken in villages and towns along the river course.

As the water level in Srisialam almost reached FRL with inflows from Jurala, irrigation department officials were braced up for additional inflows.

“We are expecting inflows to increase further, as the floodwater from Tungabhadra dam will reach Srisailam by Monday morning. ”

Vijaya Kumar, irrigation official in Kurnool told TNIE. 

At 6 pm on Saturday, inflows into Srisailam stood at 5,86,905 cusecs. Flood discharge from the project stood at 4,26,301. A total of 10 gates were lifted, five of them to a height of 15 feet and five to 10 feet to discharge water at 3,21,135 cusecs through the spillway.

In 2009, a similar situation had prevailed with large volumes of water flowing into the Srisailam project in a short time.

“We have not seen such a situation since then. Though water-levels are increasing, we are discharging as we are receiving it. If needed more gates will be opened to their full height to release water,” Vijaya Kumar said

In 2009, the Srisailam project received 9.5 lakh cusecs of water from Jurala and an almost similar amount of water from Tungabhadra within a short time resulting in backwaters flooding Kurnool city.