Heavy inflow into Mettur and other dams in TN

More than 100 families were evacuated to safety in Kanniyakumari district on Wednesday with heavy rain continuing to pound catchment areas of Pechiparai and Perunjanai dams, even as MeT department forecast heavy rain for most part of southern Tamil Nadu.

In western Tamil Nadu, Stanley Reservoir in Mettur is brimming with Wednesday's inflow standing at 1.5 lakh cusecs of water due to heavy discharge from Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini reservoirs in Karnataka.

Though the district administration has prepared a vulnerability map to prevent any damage even if the inflow goes up to 4 lakh cusecs of water, the inflow is expected to increase to 2 lakh cusecs by Thursday evening.

All major dams in the state have either achieved their full reservoir level (FRL) or are at the verge of attaining the maximum storage level due to heavy rain in Kerala.

Majority of the rivers in Coimbatore district are in full spate due to heavy inflow of water from Kerala that is to witness fresh spells of rain till Saturday.

With the Meteorological Department (MeT) predicting heavy rainfall in Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Theni and Dindigul districts, the Tamil Nadu government issued advisories to the district collectors to take enough precautionary measure.

The situation in Kanniyakumari was little serious as more than 30,000 cusecs of water is being released from Pechiparai and Perunjanai dams due to heavy inflow.

Due to the MeT department warning and heavy inflow of water from Kerala flooding many villages, schools in Kanniyakumari district will be shut on Thursday.

“Very heavy to heavy rainfall received in catchments of Petchparai and Perunjanai dams of Kanniyakumari district. Altogether 30,000 cusecs water is being released. District Collector has evacuated more than 100 families and advised people in low lying areas to move to safety," the state disaster management authority said.

Though most of the reservoirs in the district are also brimming with water, Tirunelveli collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish told DH that the situation does not warrant evacuation of people.