Date:04/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/04/stories/2008080454300100.htm

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Heavy rain forecast for State

Special Correspondent

Low pressure area forms off the North Andhra-South Orissa coast

Better tidings: Water being released from the Jurala project in Mahabubnagar district on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: Heavy rain is in store for the State for at least the next two days. A low pressure area was formed in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday off the North Andhra-South Orissa coast, causing very heavy and widespread rains in the State. Very heavy rain (13 to 25 cm) is likely to continue over the State on Monday and Tuesday. Accordingly, the State Met Office issued a warning to Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godvari districts and the entire Telangana.

Several places in Warangal and Khammam districts were battered by heavy rainfall on Sunday. Eturunagaram received heavy rainfall (in cm) of 17 Dummagudem 15, Venkatapuram 13, Ramannapet 11, Parkal 9 and Mulug 7.

Godavari rising

Meanwhile, the Godavari began to get heavy inflows from the Sabari and other tributaries, with the level of the river rising in Dowleswaram.

The upper part of the river, however, was devoid of any inflows. Consequently, the storage in Sriramsagar remained static.

Also, storages in the projects across the Krishna like Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar remained unchanged, as the lower part of the river, which is in Andhra Pradesh, failed to get any inflows. The releases made by the projects in Karnataka such as Alamatti and Narayanpur, reached Jurala at the rate of about 4,500 cusecs. The rain eased the power situation to a large extent, pushing down the demand to 150 million units.