Chennai: With the water level in Mettur Dam crossing the 100 ft mark in the wake of copious inflows in the past few days, Tamil Nadu Government on Saturday ordered release of water for irrigation in Cauvery Delta region from tomorrow, instead of August 15 as announced earlier.
Announcing this, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a statement here recalled her August 7 statement in the Assembly that water would be released from August 15 from the dam, the lifeline of farmers in Cauvery delta districts.
However, between August 7 and 9, a total of 12.40 tmc ft of water had been released into Cauvery from Krishnarajasagar and Kabini dams in Karnataka, she said in a statement here.
This morning, the storage level stood at 103.10 ft (maximum 120 feet) with an inflow of 90,000 cusecs and this quantum was likely to continue, she said.
"Considering the present situation, I have ordered for release of 9,000 cusecs from August 10 itself for irrigation in Cauvery delta," she added.
The water release would benefit farmers in cultivating samba paddy crop in 12,000 lakh acres in the delta districts.
