Dam storage levels in districts rise, but Chennai reservoirs remain dry

CHENNAI: Though the sky remained overcast over parched Chennai, which later in the day welcomed a drizzle, the reservoirs in the districts coming under the western ghat region received copious inflows.

The dams in the city - Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills (Puzhal) and Chembarambakkam - have not seen rains and continue to remain dry. According to the Central Water Commission the Bhavanisagar reservoir (of 105 feet) in Erode is receiving a steady inflow of 500 cumec (cubic meters per second) while the Mettur dam (120 feet) in Salem is receiving an inflow of 2,900 cusecs inflow.

The water level in Pillur dam in Coimbatore region reached 97 feet against its full level capacity of 100 feet getting a huge inflow of 62,000 cusecs while the water in the Sholayar dam reached 106.16 feet against its capacity of 160 feet receiving an inflow of 6,613 cusecs.

Officials of the Central Water Commission are closely monitoring the situation in Karnataka which has released a massive over one lakh cusecs water. A red alert has been sounded across northern Karnataka for the next three days. This would mean the Mettur dam would get more water.

The IMD Chennai has forecast light to moderate rain at isolated places over Kanyakumari, ghat areas of Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Theni and Tirunelveli districts and light rain likely to occur at isolated places over rest interior districts of Tamil Nadu. Heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places over ghat areas of Theni, Nilgiris and Coimbatore districts, it warned.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said about 5,500 people in Nilgiris have been moved to relief camps, while 15,000 others have moved out and are staying with their relatives elsewhere. A landslide occurred at Panthalur and restoration work was on, he said.