Farmers in Tirupur and Karur districts, who are looking forward to a good rabi season harvest to offset the huge slump in the earnings during the just concluded kharif season owing to weak monsoon, can now rejoice.
On Monday afternoon, the Public Works Department (Water Resources Organisation) released water from Amaravathi Dam through two sluices into Amaravathy River to cater to the irrigational needs of farmers in the command area spread over 29,387 acres (15,936 acres in Tirupur district and 13,451 acres in Karur district).
“During the rabi season, the farmers in the regions served by Amaravathi river irrigation system mainly raise paddy. The farmers should utilise the water being received in a judicious manner to get optimal benefits,” Joint Director of Agriculture Mohammed Kalimullah Sherif said.
PWD (WRO) sources told The Hindu that water would be released at the rate of 800 cusecs for a total of 115 days in spells. “Each spell of release will be for 10 days with five days break in between,” officials said.
The PWD officials had estimated release of 4,276 mcft (million cubic feet of water) in the 115 days period.
“The total quantum of water eventually getting released will depend on the water inflow into the dam in the coming days though the water level at the moment is promising,” a senior PWD official said.
The water level in the dam stood at 65.05 feet against the total 90 feet and water storage at 2,049 mcft against the total 4,047 mcft, all data recorded at 7 a.m. on Monday.
The inflow into the dam was 206 cusecs.
Collector G. Govindaraj officially opened the shutters in presence of MLAs C. Shanmugavelu and K. Ponnusamy, and Arasu Cable TV Corporation chairman K. Radhakrishnan.
