The Lal Bahadur Shastri dam (Almatti) on Friday received its first inflows of the season. The reservoir received 12,761 cusecs of water on the first day, thanks to copious rain in its catchment in Maharashtra for the last four to five days and outflows from Hipparagi reservoir.
About 10,000 cusecs was let out of Hipparagi barrage in Jamkhandi taluk. The water level in Rajapur barrage in Maharashtra is seeing a steady increase.
Normally, the dam gets its first inflows from upstream Krishna in the second or third week of June. Last year, the dam had received the season’s first inflows on July 3.
Inflows into Almatti had stopped since Dec 1, 2019.
The reservoir had recorded a massive inflow last year, owing to the incessant showers in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. The inflow was such that, the reservoir was still left 27 tmcft even after releasing water to canals till April 10, 2020.
The water level in the dam rose to 509.30 metres on Friday. The full reservoir level (FRL) is 519.60 metres. The reservoir has 27.5 tmcft water as against its maximum storage capacity of 123.0891 tmcft.