Water released from Vaigai dam for annual Chithirai festival in Madurai

MADURAI: With the festivities of Chithirai Thiruvizha, an annual feature of Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, gaining momentum, 750 cusecs of water was released from the Vaigai dam at 11 am on Sunday.

This was to facilitate the entry of Lord Kallazhagar into River Vaigai, which is the highlight of the festival to be witnessed on May 5 in Madurai. The 12-day annual festival began with a flag hoisting in the temple on April 23.

The PWD authorities from the Vaigai dam subdivision stated that the Government ordered to release of 216 million cusecs of water from the dam from April 30 to May 5, on which a holiday was also declared by the District Administration in Madurai, sources said. Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian on Sunday said about ten to fifteen lakh devotees are expected to gather to witness the festival and the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has taken adequate precautionary measures and a meeting was convened to review the preparedness.

Talking to reporters at Madurai airport, the Minister said as many as 1,580 field workers and 1,800 conservancy workers would be engaged during the festival and 22 sanitary inspectors would be involved in supervising the works.

The Minister also added that medical camps would be set up at 56 locations. Emergency ambulance vans are in place at 32 locations. Madurai City Police has also made traffic diversions on Avani Moola streets to be effective from the early morning hours of May 2 when the celestial wedding, the other key event of the festival.