With heavy rains continuing to lash several parts of Andhra Pradesh under the influence of depression, and the major reservoirs brimming with water, the state government has decided to open the crest gates of Nagarjuna Sagar dam from Sunday through both the left and right canals. The announcement about the opening of the gates was made by the major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Saturday. With the inflow of 2.25 lakh cuseces in to Srisailam project the outflow from the project is likely to increase further. The project, which has storage capacity of 263 feet is full up to 95 percent. Nagarjuna Sagar, which has a capacity of 408 TMC ft of water, is now full up to 98 percent. The two projects, which had dried up following last summer, were not getting sufficient inflows till a month ago causing grave concern to the state government and the farming community. But the heavy rains in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh over the last month have brought about a dramatic change in the situation. Meanwhlie with the heavy rains of the last few days, the rainfall in Hyderabad during the monsoon season has reached 52 percent in excess of the normal rains. As the monsoon will formally come to an end on September 30, the officials believe that the total rainfall for this year could be still higher. __
