Water being released from many dams in western Maharashtra: Officials

Good rainfall in catchment areas of

various dams in western Maharashtra have prompted authorities to release water from them, Irrigation department officials have said.

Water from the Koyna dam in Satara district is being released at the rate of 52,146 cusecs in the downstream Koyna river, a district official said on Sunday.

The dam is currently filled to 86 per cent of its total capacity of 86.08 TMC (one thousand million cubic feet).

Apart from the Koyna dam, water is also being releasedat the rate of 14,486 cusecs from the Chandoli dam on the Warna river, which separates Sangli and Kolhapur districts.

In Kolhapur district, the catchment area of the Radhanagari dam has been receiving intermittentshowers.

"Four gates of the Radhanagari dam are opened and water is being currently discharged at the rate of 7,112 cusecs," a Kolhapur district official said.

The water level of the Panchganga river at the Rajaram weir outside Kolhapur is currently at 34 feet, which is below the warning level of 39 feet, he said.

Kolhapur and Sangli districts had witnessed massive floods last year.

Meanwhile, due to heavy rains, some villages in Kolhapur district remained cut off from rest of the district due to flood in the Kasari river, a major tributary of the Panchganga river, he said.

The official said the rate of the water discharge from the Almatti dam in north Karnataka has been increased by 20,000 cusecs to 2 lakh cusecs, after Maharashtra minister Rajendra Patil-Yadravkar spoke with Karnataka's water resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi.

It was alleged that backwater of the Almatti dam caused flooding in Kolhapur and Sangli districts last year as water was not released in time by neighbouring Karnataka.

Meanwhile, an "orange alert" has been issued by the Met department for ghat areas in Pune district for Monday.

"Isolated heavy rainfallto very heavy rainfallin ghat areas of Pune district is likely to occur for all four days from August 17 onwards," the IMD said.

An orange alert has been given in the flat areas of Pune district as there are chances of low visibility, slippery road and chances of landslide adjacent to the hilly region, a Met department official said.