Parambikulam dam shutter washed away, Minister overseeing restoration

COIMBATORE: One of the three shutters of Parambikulam dam in Palakkad district was washed away on Wednesday early morning resulting in 16,000 cusecs of water flowing out.

Around 1.45 am, a chain in the middle shutter snapped and eventually the shutter door weighing around 32 tonnes was washed away to around 100 metres. Water has been gushing out of the entire shutter way of 27 feet. The dam, which serves as a main source of drinking water to Coimbatore and Tirupur, had full storage of nearly 72 feet following copious rains.

On receiving information, a team of Public Works Department and Water Resources Organisation (WRO) officials from Tamil Nadu rushed to the dam. “Around 5.7 TMC of water is likely to drain out from the dam, which has a total storage capacity of 17 TMC. It may take two to three days for the water flow to stop, after which restoration works could be carried out. Since July, 17 TMC of surplus water has been discharged from the dam,” said an official.

Further, officials said that it might take some days to replace the shutter. Also, the hydro power generation in Sholayar dam in Valparai has been disrupted after flow of water from the reservoir to Parambikulam dam has been stopped due to the damaged shutters.

Meanwhile, farmers from Aliyar and ‘Thirumurthy Neerthekka Thittakuzhu’ visited the dam in the neighbouring state and expressed concern over water meant for irrigation needs going waste. They urged the officials to speed up restoration works before the northeast monsoon commences in Tamil Nadu.

More than 4.25 lakh acres of farmland were irrigated under PAP project on Aliyar and Palar river basins in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts.

Minister for Water Resources Duraimurugan and other senior officials inspected the dam to oversee the restoration works. Though the dam is in Kerala, its maintenance is done by Tamil Nadu.