In an extremely heartening development for the Telugu States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Srisailam dam is close to its full reservoir capacity and four of its crest gates have been lifted to release water to downstream Nagarjunasagar dam.

These two major reservoirs bring cheer to not only the farmers, people as they meet drinking water requirement but also to the Government as they ease out pressure on the administration facilitating both hydel power generation as also ensuring water supplies.

Due to heavy rains in the Krishna river catchment areas on Maharashtra and Karnataka, two of the major reservoirs in Karnataka Almatti and Narayanpur have filled up and releasing more than 3,60,000 cusecs of water into Jurala. Jurala in turn has lifted all its crest gates and releasing the entire inflow into Srisailam while also generating power from its hydel power stations.

With Srisailam reservoir achieving a water level of 879 feet as against full reservoir level of 885 feet, it has opened four crest gates today and releasing more than 1,00,000 cusecs of water into the Nagarjunasagr dam. Along side, it has also begun to generate power from the dam power houses.

The Nagarjunasgar dam, whose full reservoir level is at 590 feet has water level at 516 feet. If the current inflows continue with water release from Karnataka dams and later from Srisailam, it is also likely to get huge inflows.

This is that time of the year when tourists throng the dams to see the wonderful sight of brimming dams and release of water.