Hyderabad, Aug 5 : Telangana's Irrigation Department on Monday lifted 10 crest gates of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) to release water downstream into the river.

With the water level nearly nearing Full Reservoir Level (FRL) following heavy inflows from upstream, the authorities lifted the gates to release two lakh cusecs of water downstream.

The gates of NSP, one of the major dams in the country, were last opened in August 2022. This brought to an end a year-long crop holiday and water scarcity in NSP's vast ayacut of 18 lakh acres across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Officials said the gates were opened following instructions from the Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy after assessing the inflows to the NSP from Srisailam and adjoining catchment areas.

The officials opened two gates in the morning and eight more in the afternoon.

NSP's Chief Engineer Nageswara Rao said a decision on opening more gates would be taken based on the massive inflows that are being received from the Srisailam Dam. Before lifting the crest gates, the officials in coordination with the district administration sounded an alert to those residing in the areas downstream and advised them to exercise more caution before entering the river.

Villages along the river in Nalgonda district of Telangana and Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh were already put on alert and fishermen were advised not to venture into the river.

Nalgonda District Collector Narayana Reddy said by evening, a total of 14 gates will be lifted to a height of five feet. The inflow into NSP was 3.23 lakh cusecs while the outflow was 83,331 cusecs. The present water level in the reservoir is 583 feet while the full reservoir level is 590 feet. The NSP has storage of 290.51 TMC against its full capacity of 312.5 TMC.

NSP's gates were not opened in 2023 due to the lowest inflows in 40 years, a result of deficient rainfall in the Krishna basin's catchment area spread over Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. An area of 6.3 lakh acres in Telangana depends on Krishna's water for irrigation. A total area of 11.74 lakh acres in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh gets water from Nagarjuna Sagar.

In November 2023, there was tension between the two Telugu states at NSP as Andhra Pradesh Police had taken control of half of the project's spillway area having 26 crest gates and released water by operating the head regulator. The Centre had to intervene and deploy the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to defuse the tension. As per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, the Nagarjunasagar dam is controlled and supervised by Telangana while Andhra Pradesh was given the control over Srisailam project. The projects are joint storage facilities meeting the power generation, irrigation and drinking needs in the two states.

/IANS