The water level in Godavari at Telangana’s famous temple town of Bhadrachalam is inching close to the first flood warning level of 43 feet owing to heavy inflows from upstream.
The Godavari continued to be in spate all along its course from Basar in Nirmal district to Bhadrachalam in Bhadradri Kothagudem district in the State following widespread rains in its catchment areas for the third day in a row.
The water level in Godavari at Bhadrachalam hovered around 42 feet with about 8.89 lakh cusecs of flood water flowing downstream at 1 p.m. The bathing ghats along the river, abutting the karakatta (flood bank), in the temple town were submerged.
The official machinery has geared up to deal with any exigency and readied temporary relief camps in the temple town to shift people living in the low-lying areas to the centres as per the flood manual.
Following the forecast of heavy rains in the catchment areas of the Godavari for the next two days, the authorities operationalised flood control rooms in Bhadrachalam and Kothagudem and kept the NDRF teams ready for deployment.
In Mulugu district, about 8.62 lakh cusecs of flood water was let out from the Sammakka Sagar (Tupakulagudem) barrage by lifting 59 spillway gates this morning.
The water level in Kadem dam in Nirmal district is nearing its full reservoir level with copious inflows from the upper catchment areas of the Godavari.
In Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, both the inflow and outflow were recorded at 6.22 lakh cusecs in the Lakshmi barrage of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) in Mahadevpur mandal at 12 noon.