Kandaleru opened, 200 cusecs to reach TN next week

Speaking to DT Next, an official said, “The Krishna water is expected to reach the city by next Saturday. We are expecting Andhra Pradesh to step up the outflow in due course of time. A total of 1,000 cusecs should be released under the scheme.”

Meanwhile, the works undertaken at a cost of Rs 24 lakh to desilt the canal which brings the Krishna water to the Poondi reservoir is nearing completion. “We have completed 90 per cent of works in the 25-km canal to facilitate the smooth flow of Krishna water,” an official said.  

Under the Krishna water supply scheme, Chennai must be provided with 8 tmcft of water between July and October. Andhra Pradesh had delayed the supply owing to poor inflow in its waterbodies.

However, the Srisailam reservoir in the neighbouring State received a good inflow thanks to copious rainfall in recent days. Subsequently, the water from Srisailam was released to the Somasila reservoir, which in turn has fed the Kandaleru reservoir. The present storage at Kandaleru reservoir is 9.162 TMC.  

The water release comes at a time when the storage capacity of the Poondi reservoir, a major source for Chennai’s water supply, is 13 mcft against its total capacity of 140 mcft. The water level in the reservoir decreased by 10 per cent over the last two months. 

Water storage at Cholavaram, Chembarambakkam and Red Hills reservoirs have also reached their lowest levels.