The rains lashing the city have brought a nip in the air and cooled the searing heat in the city
A motorist wades through a thick blanket of water near K.G. theatre after a short spell of rain in Coimbatore. (Photo: Balu Mahendran .R)
Coimbatore: As the skies opened up, the tar roads in Coimbatore too opened up with gaping holes, craters and puddles of water in many places, causing inconvenience to the residents.
The rains lashing the city have brought a nip in the air and cooled the searing heat in the city. But the downpour also completely exposed the corporation’s road-laying and maintenance work.
As usual, the rains filled up the railway under pass on the Kikani school road and caused water logging at K.G. theater junction, making the two spots unmotorable.
About 20 corporation workers were involved in the work of pumping water from the flyovers. But people complained of water logging in several areas.
However, the rains have increased the water level in the dams serving the district. According to Revenue officials, during the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Tuesday, Sholyar dam witnessed 10 mm rainfall, while Parambikulam area received 3 mm. At Siruvani dam which supplies water to the city, the storage has shot up.
On Tuesday, Siruvani dam received 3 mm rainfall, while the dam water levels reached 872.84 m against the full reservoir level of 878.5 m from sea level. "When heavy rain continues in the catchment area of Siruvani, dam is expected to overflow next week," said a corporation official.
The Siruvani dam supplies water to 9.72 lakh city residents through 2.67 lakh water connections.
“We are drawing 90 mld every day from dam. When water level reaches the full reservoir level of 878.5m, we will withdraw 98 mld per day and there will be no water scarcity for three months. Now, 34 workers are involved in Siruvani dam maintenance", the Corporation official said.
The Pilloor dam, which also serves drinking water to the city, did not receive any rainfall. However, with heavy inflow from Bhavani, the water level has reached 75 feet against full reservoir 100 feet.
Showers likely for next 4 days
There is good news for Kovaites as drizzles and downpours are expected to continue over the next three to four days in Coimbatore. It is seasonal rainfall and it occurs due to high temperature, informed Dr S. Panneerselvam, professor and head, department of agro climate research centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural university (TNAU).
On Monday, Coimbatore recorded around 31 mm and on Tuesday it is expected to touch 20 mm and sporadic rain is expected over the next four days. “This is a widespread rain based on cool weather and it basically covers the regions of Coimbatore, Pollachi South, parts of city like Thondamuthur," said Paneeselvam
“It's a good that we are receiving this rain now. For the past 20 days we didn't have any rain and the temperature was going up. This is highly essential for the city. Compared to last year, the south-west monsoon we received this year is a little less,” said Dr Panneerselvam.
Last year, Coimbatore received 218 mm of rainfall during south west monsoon, this year it is 130 mm while in 2013 it was 150 mm. Coimbatore is likely to get more than 400 mm rainfall through the year. From January to September 30, city received 369 mm. “This year Coimbatoreans are lucky that they didn't experience scorching heat.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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