The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board, following India Meteorological Department’s orange alert to Hyderabad and the neighbouring districts, operated gates of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs on a precautionary basis on Saturday.

Managing Director K. Ashok Reddy along with officials inspected the reservoir levels and alerted the Revenue and Municipal departments for related measures, including flood assessment and public advisory.

At Osmansagar, as 100 cusecs is the inflow from upstream, four gates were lifted by two feet to discharge 920 cusecs water. With Himatyasagar almost at brimming levels, one gate was lifted to discharge about 1000 cusecs. An inflow of 400 cusecs was recorded.

In view of the weather alert and forecast, the HMWS&SB said flood discharge will be increased at both the reservoirs. In a phased manner, water discharge at Himayatsagar will be set to 2000 cusecs and Osmansagar to 3000 cusecs, to maintain a combined outflow of 5000 cusecs.

As at 7 p.m., the combined outflow was about 4,600 cusecs with two gates and six gates lifted, respectively. Osmansagar was about 20 cm short of the full tank level, and Himayatsagar by 17 cm.