As rains continue to pound the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, inundating a number of cities, towns and villages, there is a lot to cheer with both the major river systems of Krishna and Godavari receiving copious inflows, filling up most of the reservoirs, barring Nagarjunasagar.

If the current level of inflows into Srisailam dam, on the verge of getting filled up to the brim (885 ft) on the Krishna river continues, the Nagarajunsgar dam, downstream is also likely to get major inflows.

Heavy rains during September this year in the catchment areas of both the rivers originating in Maharashtra, has resulted in filling up of all the dams upstream in Maharashtra and Karnataka and the lower riparian States have received heavy inflows in the past week.

The filling up of dams on Godavari course at Singur, Nizamsagar, Sriramsagar, Lower Manair dam, Kaddam and Sripada Yellampallai barrage, all located in Telangana, has boosted the prospect of the agriculture sector, in the State which had been facing drought like situation over the past two years.

While there was enough power, and the Government offered nine hours of power supply, there was inadequate water in these reservoirs and the ground water had sunk in, the latter made it tough for the farmers as they could not evacuate water for standing crops.

After an aerial survey, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said the Mission Kakatiya (which seeks to rejuvenate the water network in the State), has played a big role in boosting the water levels in the State. All the reservoirs are full and the State will head towards becoming drought proof.

He was hopeful that the filling up of the reservoirs would augur well for the State and its farm community.

Apart from filling up, the dams at Jurala, Srisailam and Nagarjunsagar on the Krishna river will significantly boost the hydel power generation in the State.

The filling up of Narayanpur and Almatti reservoirs in Karnataka and continued inflows into them from upper reaches has forced the Karnataka irrigation department to release water to Jurala downstream, which is receiving more than 1,71,632 cusecs of water and generating power from six hydel units of 39 mw each. The water thus released and flood water from other sources is boosting the Srisailam dam whose current level is 880.40 ft as against full reservoir level of 885. With inflows of 2,12,848 cusecs, it is expected to hit full capacity shortly.

The Right and Left hydel plants are generating power at Srisailam and this is boosting the level at Nagarjunasagar dam, whose current level is 517.60 feet as against FRL of 590 ft. It is receiving about 54836 cusecs.

Once the Srisailam dam gets filled up, the Nagarjunasagar dam is poised to get more inflows.

Both the States stand to gain from dams getting filled up not only due to hydel power generation, it will boost the agriculture during kharif and rabi seasons.

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