Canal breaches day after Vaigai release

After conducting inspection of the channel, Collector M Pallavi Baldev said that the water from the canal has breached a small portion of the channel and PWD officials were instructed to fix it soon. The breached levee was shored up and nearly a thousand sand bags were placed to plug any leakage.

The restoration work was completed in five hours with the help of 52 workers and two earthmovers, working under the supervision of 10 officials, said sources.

The breaches occurred nearly 11 kilometre away from the end on the 27-kilometre long canal, on the canal and some portions of the left and right banks of the canal as well. They were detected at Pudur village of Andipatti taluk. Since bunds along the canal were reportedly in weak condition, this could be one of the reasons that led to the breaches. The breached waters were safely diverted to ‘chinna odai’ near the canal and let into the Vaigai river.

As the catchment areas of the Mullaperiyar dam received a good amount of rainfall resulting in the rise of water storage levels, several hundreds of cusecs of surplus water were discharged into the Idukki dam in Kerala and Vaigai dam in Tamil Nadu.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had on Wednesday opened the sluice gates of the Vaigai dam, where water stood at 69 feet, for trial purpose. It was the first time, water was released into this canal since its inception.

The trial run was made with a velocity of 0.65 metre per second, which is the average flow of the canal, said sources. 

Further, they added that 300 cusecs were released into the canal, however, later it was reduced to 100.