Telangana State government is worried over low level of water in river Godavari.Inflows into the river dwindling because of drought conditions in upper riparian state

Hyderabad: With Pushkarams just a week away, the Telangana State government is worried over low level of water at various Pushkar ghats in the state. Due to deficit rainfall in the upper riparian state Maharashtra there has been steep fall in inflows into river Godavari.

Following this, the Telangana State government decided to send an official delegation consisting of officials of Irrigation and Endowments Department to meet their counterparts in Maharashtra government to request them for release water, so that the 12-day pushkaram can be conducted successfully.

According to Minister for Endowments Indrakaran Reddy, the government had already written a letter to Maharashtra following which it had released 0.1 tmcft of water from Bhabhli project. The delegation would now request the government to release water from Vishnupuri and  Gaikwad project to Kandakurthi and Basara Pushkar ghats, the two among seven holy places on the banks of  Godavari.   

The Minister expressed concern that all the projects constructed on Godavari basin were having low water levels. Water levels in the SRSP (Sriram Sagar Project) had already reached dead storage level. As a contingency plan, all water inflows coming into the river would be stored at the SRSP project. The government planned to release 3,000 cusecs of water to Pochampadu Pushkar ghat from SRSP during the 12-day period.

The Minister said the officials had already started the operation to supply 3,000 cusecs of water from Kadem project to  Dharmapuri which was one of the famous Pushkar ghats on the banks of Godavari in Telangana State.  For Kaleshwaram and Eturunagaram ghats, water would be released from Ellampalli project. The two ghats require 6,000 cusecs of water, he said.