Mettur Dam reaches full capacity of 120 feet

Coimbatore: The water-level in the Stanley Reservorir in Mettur, Salem district, touched its capacity of 120 feet for the 42nd time in its 88-year-old history. This necessitated issuing a flood alert to the people living in low-lying area of the delta districts in the Cauvery basin.

With over 1.18 lakh cusecs of water being received by the dam from both Krishnaraj Sagar and Kabini in Karnataka, the level increased in the last four days resulting in touching 120 feet, its maximum storage height, official sources said.

The level increased nearly 20 feet in the last four days, they said. As the surplus water to the tune of 5,000 to 10,000 cusecs would be released any time now from 16 sluice gates, the people in the low-lying areas were asked to be alert, the sources said.

The release of water would benefit the farmers of Salem, Erode, Karur, Namakkal, Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Cuddalore, and Nagapattinam. The water from Mettur Dam was released on May 24 this year as against the usual on June 12 on the orders of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin.