The authorities will lift the crest gates of Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy (NSR) Srisailam project on Tuesday to release water downstream. Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu will perform ‘Jala Harathi’ to river Krishna on the occasion.

Officials said that this is first time in the recent years that the project gates are being opened in the first week of July. According to the statistics provided by officials, in 2019, gates opened on August 11, when the project received 203.42 TMC ft of water and levels reached 882.80 ft. In 2020, gates were opened on August 21 with the project receiving 207.40 TMC ft of water and levels touching 883.50 ft. In 2021 and 2022, the gates were opened on July 29 and July 23 respectively. However, in 2023, the project gates were not lifted as it did not receive much water.

Last year, the gates were opened on July 29 when water touched 878.90 ft with 179.18 TMC ft water in the project.

As on 7 p.m. on Monday (July 7), the project has 880.90 ft of water as against its full reservoir level of 885 ft and 185.54 TMC ft against its capacity to hold 215.80 TMC ft.

The project is receiving 1,67,669 cusecs of inflow from upstream Jurala and Sunkesula projects and officials released 83,233 cusecs of water into Pothireddypadu village as well as for power generation in the right and left houses.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister will reach Sundipenta in helicopter from Amaravati on Tuesday morning and will have darshan of the presiding deities at Sri Bhramarambha Mallikarjuna Swamy temple in Srisailam. From there, he will proceed to Srisailam project to offer ‘Jala Harathi’ to river Krishna. He will later interact with water user associations at Sundipenta and then return to Amaravati.