Flood alert to 5 districts as Krishnagiri Reservoir Project dam nearing full level

With the state receiving good rain, waterbodies are filling up fast. The level in the 52-foot-tall Krishnagiri Reservoir Project (KRP) has been steadily increasing over the last few days due to heavy rains in the catchment areas in Karnataka.

The dam is so full on the verge of overflowing in a couple of days. As a result, flood alert has been issued to all five districts through which Ponnaiyar (also known as Thenpennai River) flows.

Apart from Krishnagiri, an alert was also issued to Dharmapuri, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai and Cuddalore districts. People living close to the banks have been asked to move to safer places and told to avoid bathing in the river and be cautious when they cross low-lying footpaths and bridges across the river.

PWD officials said that the inflow to the dam that was 795 cusecs on Thursday night had increased to 2,600 cusecs on Friday morning.

While it dropped to 1,985 cusecs on Friday evening, officials said that catchment areas upstream in Karnataka continued to receive heavy rains and this would reflect with inflow going up at KRP. On Friday, water level in the dam stood at 50.1 feet. Water from the river originating at Nandidurg in Chikkaballapur district, Karnataka, covers nearly 400 km in Tamil Nadu before flowing into the Bay of Bengal at Cuddalore.