Alert sounded at Prakasam barrage

Vijayawada, Oct 5 :

 Engineer in chief, Major Irrigation M K Rehman asked the officials of Prakasam barrage to be on high alert in the next 36 hours as the Krishna river will be reaching the maximum level on Monday. Talking to media persons here, he said that the inflow into the barrage has reached a record million cusecs, inundating many parts of Vijayawada and thousands of people are still being evacuated from villages of low-lying areas.

He said that the embankments at few points are vulnerable to damage and submerge vast areas. But the irrigation authorities have mobilised 3,00,000 sand bags to prevent flooding by strengthening the bunds, he explained.

He said that there was no threat to Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams as inflows of water are slowly receding. The nine flood gates of Srisailam dam were already closed, he added. He said that the barrage has never faced such massive inflows in its history and termed it as the worst floods in Krishna river in the past 100 years.