Hyderabad: With incessant rains lashing the city and its suburbs, the water bodies in and around the city have been receiving good inflows. The water levels in Shamirpet, which remained rock bottom for four years, have started to increase steadily in the last couple of days. The current water level in the lake is 20 feet against the full tank level of 32 feet.
There have been good inflows in the last few days from catchment areas and authorities are expecting the inflows to continue during the next couple of days. “If the inflows continue for another two to three days, the lake will be full to the brim,” said Suresh, Deputy Engineer, Irrigation Department.
After 2015-16, it is now that the Shamirpet lake is getting steady inflows due to the heavy rains in Hyderabad and neighboring areas. In 2016, the water level in the lake had gone up to 12 feet and this season, it has already reached 20 feet level. The inflows are generally from Medchal cheruvu and from rains in the catchment areas. Already, Keesara lake is receiving good inflows and so is the Medchal cheruvu, he said.
For a long, Shamirpet lake has been a major tourist spot in the city and the steady inflows into the lake had the tourism department expressing happiness.
Meanwhile, the water levels in Hussain Sagar have also been rising and crossed the full tank level of 513.41 mts due to the rains on Saturday. Officials said the water level in the lake was 513.65 mts on Saturday evening and more inflows were expected. However, GHMC officials said there was nothing to panic as the lake was designed in a way that 1.5 metres can flow above the Maximum Water Level of 514.91 metres.
The GHMC lakes wing is constantly monitoring the situation. There are 21 vents for the water body installed several decades ago. Every time, there is a heavy inflow into Hussain Sagar from upstream, the surplus water overflows through the vents at Hotel Marriott’s end, officials said.