Prakasam barrage bracing up for great deluge

HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: After Krishna’s tributary Tungabhadra turned Kurnool into a hell, now the Krishna river is all set to ensure a repeat of the nightmare in Vijayawada and several villages in Krishna district.

With inflows into Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar not abating and the officials letting out huge volumes of water downstream of the river, Prakasam barrage appears to be bracing for the great deluge.

The water that is being released into the Krishna from Nagarjuna Sagar is now on its way to Prakasam Barrage and by night fall, the water might start hitting the barrage.

With the discharge being over 10 lakh cusecs at Srisailam and seven to eight lakh cusecs at Nagarjuna Sagar, the threat of inundation is live for Krishna district.

This apart, several streams join the Krishna a little ahead of Prakasam barrage with signifacant volumes of water.

Apprehending inundation on a large scale, the Krishna district administration has already shifted about one lakh population to about 12 relief centres, most of them in Vijayawada alone and they are making efforts to move more number of people to safer places.

The Prakasam Barrage has the capacity of handling inflows of about 10 lakh cusecs and a litte over but any inflows more than this might become a problem.

Already the officials are letting out whatever water is available in the reservoir which is always impounded to a height of 12 to help Vijayawada Thermal Power station (VTPS) draw it for use as a coolant in the condensors of the power generation equipment. As the deluge has never been this huge, the officials are letting out more water downstream so that by the time Nagarjuna Sagar water reaches Prakasam barrage there is enough room. The VTPS has no immediate threat of lack of water to run its thermal units since they have a separate channel built recently and it could use it for the puropse of cooling the condensors.

The met department’s forecast too being very grim for the next 24 hours with widespread rains lashing the State, the officials are worried how long this nightmare would last and when the inflows would abate. ``Before the inflows stop, the water would have done a damage beyond imaginable proportions,’’ an official said.

source:http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Prakasam+barrage+bracing+up+for+great+deluge&artid=Pxbeww%7C/Jr0=&SectionID=e7uPP4%7CpSiw=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=

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NEWS HOUNDER

Oct 3, 2009