A view of the Sriramsagar project.
With the water storage in the Sriramsagar project crossing the halfway mark this season, the Irrigation Department authorities have decided to begin releasing water to the ayacut under Kakatiya, Saraswati and Laxmi canals from August 7.
On Sunday noon, the storage of water in the reservoir was 44 tmc ft against its full capacity of 80.5 tmc ft (live storage) and over 21,400 cusecs flood reaching it. According to superintending engineer of the project T. Srinivas Rao Gupta, water would be released to the canal on August 7 morning or forenoon. The decision on water release was taken by the State Committee for Integrated Water Planning and Management (SCIWAM).
The three canal systems have a combined ayacut of nearly 9.69 lakh acres in the three erstwhile districts – Karimnagar, Warangal and Nizamabad. Last year, the project had become surplus in mid-July itself with copious rains in the upstream catchment areas in Maharashtra.
