Ending a year-long crop holiday and severe scarcity conditions that stalked its vast ayacut of 18 lakh acres spread over the Telugu States of Telangana (6.3 lakh acres) and Andhra Pradesh (11.74 lakh acres), 14 of the 26 crest gates of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) were lifted releasing the flood flow from the dam on Monday.
The project is discharging a combined outflow of over 2 lakh cusecs from all the outlets including its two main canals. The volume will be raised further if needed taking the inflows from the upstream projects into consideration. The river bank villages in Nalgonda and Palnadu districts were sounded an alert a day well in advance. Fishermen were advised not to venture into the river.