Mettur water level surges, just 10ft short of brim

COIMBATORE: As inflow into the Mettur dam rose steadily, the water storage level began to surge and is just ten feet short of reaching its full reservoir level (FRL) of 120 feet.

At 8 am on Wednesday, the dam’s storage level stood at 110.03 feet.

From 9,683 cusecs on Tuesday, the inflow into the dam increased to 12,819 cusecs on Wednesday morning.

Water storage level in the dam has begun to go up over the last three days as inflow is higher than the outflow of 1000 cusecs. The dam had a storage of 109.33 feet on Tuesday.

As the dam currently has a comfortable storage level, the farmers are hopeful of water getting released from the dam on its customary date of June 12 for Delta irrigation.

Last year, the dam missed its customary date for release of water due to poor storage level, and its sluices were opened on July 28.

At Biligundlu, the entry point of Cauvery river into Tamil Nadu, the inflow rose to 14,000 cusecs on Wednesday morning following widespread rains in catchment areas.

However, the inflow dipped to 10,000 cusecs on Wednesday, 4 pm, and it was around 8,000 cusecs on Tuesday.

Officials of the Water Resources Department are maintaining round-the-clock monitoring at Biligundlu to record the inflow levels.