Aurangabad: For agricultural purposes in downstream areas, the Jayakwadi, which is the major irrigation project, has started releasing water.
Both left and right bank canal systems of the dam have been discharging water, following the nod from the canal advisory committee headed by state water resources minister Girish Mahajan.
The irrigation project, which was originally conceptualised as a source for irrigation in the region, due to deficient monsoons until the second half of last year, it could not release water for four years.
The right bank canal system of the dam witnessed a release of water at the speed of 500 cusec, while the left bank canal system at 300 cusec by Wednesday evening, said Jayakwadi major irrigation project in-charge A H Chavan.
He also said, "We have not been asked to release specific amount of water, but the discharge would continue according to the progress of monsoon conditions."
Irrigation department authorities said agricultural land from parts of Jalna, Aurangabad, Beed and Parbhani districts would benefit from the current discharge.
Jayakwadi dam, which has a designed storage capacity of 102 TMC, including around 26 TMC of dead storage, had more than 23% live storage by Wednesday, 19th July evening. By Wednesday evening, with no fresh heavy rainfall in upstream areas from Ahmednagar and Nashik districts, the inflow in Jayakwadi reduced gradually.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
