AP reservoirs brim with water from upstream

With heavy discharges from the Almatti and Narayanapur projects to Jurala, reservoirs down the line in Andhra Pradesh are brimming with river water, bringing much-needed relief to farmers.

 On Saturday, 28 gates from Almatti were lifted to release 1.58 lakh cusecs of water, 30 gates of Narayanapur were lifted to release 1.49 lakh cusecs and 1.62 lakh cusecs from 28 gates of Jurala in Telangana.

With the heavy inflow, the Srisailam reservoir got almost 8 TMC feet of water by Saturday. Chances of releasing water to the Rayalaseema region are bright, with the water levels at the Pothyreddypadu head regulator reaching 841 feet. 

Hydel units on the right and left banks of Srisailam have produced 10 million units of power, and water has been released to Nagarjunasagar.

With farming activity picking up in the state, AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the status of preparedness with respective district collectors through a teleconference here on Saturday.

Speaking on farm loan waiver, the chief minister told the collectors that the total amount of loans to be waived in the state is Rs 1.5 lakh crore, benefiting 96.5 per cent of the farmers. 

He asked the collectors to look into reducing input costs in agriculture and simultaneously increasing output with the available resources. Naidu also asked the collectors to ensure that bankers act immediately on the waiver, and ordered the issuance of fresh loans.

Meanwhile, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed Telangana Genco MD Prabhakar Rao to speed up repair work at the submerged Jurala hydel-power station. 

The chief minister also asked him to look into the quality of construction of the unit, built under the united AP government, and fix responsibility for it. The water at the submerged station stood at 282 metres.