Coracle rides likely to resume on Friday

Inflow into Hogenakkal, which stood at 45,000 cusecs on Wednesday, reduced drastically to 22,000 cusecs on Thursday around 2 pm. The inflow is likely to drop further as the discharge from Karnataka has been stepped down to a bare minimum. 

A couple of weeks ago, the water inflow reached a maximum of 2.5 lakh cusecs due to heavy downpour in Karnataka. The Mettur dam, which reached its FRL for the third time in a month on Wednesday, received about 16,000 cusecs on Thursday, a drop from 70,000 cusecs on Wednesday.  

The water level in the dam, which now stands at 120.12 feet, is likely to go down as the discharge (35,800 cusecs) remains higher than its inflow. 

Meanwhile, the Dharmapuri district administration is expected to lift the ban on the coracle rides to the Hogenakkal falls on Friday. 

Officials are also planning to take up repair works as the safety railings at the falls were washed away and damaged in the heavy floods.