The irrigation and revenue authorities have issued a red alert to people of 12 villages along the river course of Kaddam to vacate their homes immediately as the nightmare of unprecedented flood to the Kaddam Narayana Reddy project in the upstream is repeated for the second year in a row. They were being shifted to nearby government installations/relief camps.
Against the designed discharge capacity of 3.82 lakh cusecs through 18 spillway gates, the flood waters being let out was only around 2.42 lakh cusecs through 14 gates as the project engineers made a vain bid to operate/lift the remaining 4 gates. According to the irrigation authorities gate numbers 2, 4, 6 and 12 were struck and there was no chance of operating them now.
However, according to officials the flood reaching the project is estimated at 3.86 lakh cusecs although unofficial reports put it at much higher. With the impact of higher flood reaching the dam, beyond its discharge capacity, the flood water is flowing over the 4 crest gates that were not operational.
