Water released from Kandaleru reservoir to reach Poondi in 4 days

According to sources the Kandaleru dam was opened for Tamil Nadu after heavy rains lashed Vijayawada and Kurnool districts in Andhra Pradesh last week.

Sources further said that present discharge was being made after Tamil Nadu government officials made a request to the Andhra Pradesh government to release the 4 tmc as per the Krishna water agreement. 

According to the Krishna water agreement (Telugu Ganga Project), Andhra Pradesh has to provide 12 tmc to TN annually. Of the total quantum, 8 tmc should be released between January and April and the balance 4 tmc should be given between July and October. 

However, due to the deluge during December 2015 in Chennai the storage at Poondi reservoir was comfortable and the Tamil Nadu government did make a request for the usual quantum of 8 tmc. But, during summer a majority of water bodies in TN dried up and the state government appealed to the Andhra government to release water.

Citing poor storage in their dams, the Andhra Pradesh expressed its inability to honour the request of Tamil Nadu. However, there was a heavy downpour in the districts of Vijayawada and Kurnool last week. Owing to this the Sri Sailam dam reached its full capacity and the Kandaleru reservoir also received heavy inflow.

As the storage rose to comfortable level in the Kandaleru reservoir, TN officials again made a request to Andhra Pradesh for release of water. Acting on this, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu ordered to release 200 cusecs last week. Since the Telugu Ganga canal is completely dry, the water released by Andhra Pradesh would take a minimum of 3 days to travel 158 km and reach zero point at Uthukottai. From there, it would flow for one more covering another 25 km before reaching the Poondi reservoir, whose full height is 35 feet. The storage at the Poondi reservoir as per readings at 6 am on Tuesday was 18.58 feet. 

Around 72 cusecs was being released to Puzhal lake through the link canal and 25 cusecs through the Baby canal.