Release of water for Rabi crop from SRSP begins today

Water from Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) will be released from December 18 for the rabi crop to wet lands under its catchment area in the undivided Karimnagar district according to a decision taken by the Engineers’ Committee in Hyderabad earlier.
Currently, there is 78.342 TMC feet of water in the project against the full storage capacity of 90.313 TMS feet of the project. The total ayacut in the upper reaches of the project is put at 4,42,920 acres.
The water would be released under Waarabandi system – i.e. the water would be released for eight days and suspended for one week in turns. During December, the farmers would be able to wet their fields once and twice each in Jan, Februray and March. The release of water would be stopped in the last week of March.
Irrigation Chief Engineer Sudhakar Reddy has asked the farmers to plan either the cultivation of paddy or other dry crops according to this schedule.  Water from the project would be released to farmers in Nizamabad, Jagityal, Peddapalli and Karimnagar districts through Kakatiya canal of the Stage-1 of the SRSP. Water to wet the fields would be released also to Nizamabad from Lakshmi canal. Farmers in Nirmal district would get the irrigation facility from Saraswati canal. Similarly, water would be released from the project to Gutpa, Ali Sagar, Choutpalli Hanmanta Reddy and other LI schemes, Mission Bhagiradha and to the Lower-Maneru dam.
Each crop needs at least 50-60 TMC feet of water.
Meanwhile, the area under the main crop of paddy and other dry crops, including the maize, is increasing significantly.