Mettur dam level at 100 ft

With the monsoon gathering momentum in western Tamil Nadu, over 14,000 cusecs of water are reaching the Mettur reservoir from the Cauvery course in Karnataka. Consequently, storage in the Mettur dam has surged and water level in the 120 feet dam which serves paddy crops in 12 delta districts, touched 100 feet on Thursday afternoon.

Water level in the dam had breached 100 feet on August 8 this year, following which the dam was opened for irrigating paddy fields in the delta districts including Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam.

As rains have been pounding the delta districts and flooding paddy fields , the public works department (PWD) had closed the shutters of the dam and stopped supply of water for irrigation at 4 p.m. on 23 October. At around 6 p.m. on Thursday, water level in the dam touched 100 feet. PWD officials and staff performed a pooja to mark the surging storage.

Meanwhile, the Public Works department Tiruchi zone chief engineer S.Asokan inspected the Mettur dam on Thursday.

Later, talking to the media, he said that the shutters at the Mettur reservoir had been maintained in good condition this year.

Following the onset of the northeast monsoon on October 17, over 300 out of the 764 tanks in the delta districts have filled to the brim. About 1 tmc ft of water is stored in the check dam at Mayanur.

Besides, 7 tmcft of water has been stored at Chengipatti where over 30 tanks are filled up. Expansion and improvement works at the Mettur dam would be undertaken at a cost of Rs 10 crore,the official said.

About 10 km from the Mettur dam, storage tanks will be built at Adhanur and Kumaramangalam to store surplus water. The monsoon augured well for the

farmers in the delta districts, the official said.