Mettur dam reaches full storage capacity, more water to be discharged upto 81,500 cusecs tonight

CHENNAI: The Mettur dam reached its full reservoir level (FRL) of 120 feet on Tuesday, forcing authorities to increase the quantity of water discharged from the reservoir.

The release amount will be gradually increased from 23,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) to 46,000 c/s at 6 pm and then 66,000 c/s at 7 pm, and later, 81,500 c/s at 8 pm, today.

Water released through the dam's power house and the tunnel power house will be at about 21,500 cusecs while the balance wil be released through Ellis saddle surplus.

Additionally, nearly 2 lakh cusecs of water were released from Kabini and KrishnaRaja Sagara (KRS) dams of Karnataka at 5 pm today. The water will reach Mettur by Wednesday noon and will then be diverted in the downstream, creating a flood like situation along the Cauvery River in the following days, official said. A flood alert has been issued to residents of areas along the river banks. Shelter camps have been set up and other precautionary measures have been taken, as informed by the government earlier.

On Sunday, the Stanley Reservoir in Mettur was opened for delta irrigation after heavy rains in the Cauvery catchment areas led to water inflow into the Mettur dam.

As the water level crossed 118 feet on Monday evening, authorities increased the discharge for delta irrigation from 12,000 cusecs to 23,000 cusecs from Sunday evening.

The dam was not opened on the customary date of June 12 as the storage level was low.

However, an intense South West Monsoon turned the tides in favour of Tamil Nadu with surplus discharge from KRS and Kabini dams in Karnataka.

(With online desk inputs)