The prospects of Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) getting inflows from the upstream remain grim due to the inactive monsoon over Upper Godavari Basin, although the authorities lifted all the 14 gates of Babli Barrage built across Godavari in Nanded district of Maharashtra, located just 7 km upstream of Kandakurthy in Nizamabad district where the river enters Telangana, on Saturday.
When the gates were lifted in the presence of engineers of the Water Resources Department of Maharashtra, Irrigation Department of Telangana and the Central Water Commission (CWC) around 10 am on Saturday, July 1, 2023, the barrage had only 0.47 tmc ft water storage against its capacity of 2.74 tmc ft. Sriramsagar received only 0.71 tmc ft water with rains in the local catchment areas in June as against 5 tmc ft water reaching the reservoir in June last year.
In its judgement given on February 28, 2013, the Supreme Court had directed Maharashtra to keep open the gates of Babli Barrage from July 1 to October 28, 120 days at a stretch, to allow Sriramsagar to get inflows from the upstream to serve its ayacut of 7.28 lakh hectares (nearly 18 lakh acres) in the erstwhile districts of Adilabad, Medak, Nizamabad, Karimanagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Khammam.
