About 75,000 cusecs of water was diverted into the Coleroon from Upper Anicut (Mukkombu) on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday as the Mettur reservoir continued to release surplus water.
The realisation at Upper Anicut touched 1.07 lakh cusecs on Tuesday forcing the Public Works Department to step up the discharge into the Coleroon.
On Monday evening, about 20,000 cusecs was let out into the Coleroon and this was increased to 75,000 cusecs on Tuesday morning. About 32,000 cusecs was flowing into the Cauvery, the PWD engineers said.
This is the highest surplus discharge into the Coleroon, essentially a flood carrier, since the 2005 floods.
The Public Works Department authorities expect the realisation to come down gradually over the next two or three days as the discharge from Mettur Dam was reduced to 59,000 cusecs on Tuesday evening.
Officials on alert
Revenue and police officials in Tiruchi went on a precautionary mode. As the Cauvery was in full flow, the authorities closed down the Amma Mandapam bathing ghat at Srirangam.
Barricades were placed, and a strong posse of policemen maintained a vigil to ensure that people did not venture near the river.
With Tuesday being Aadi Amavasai, a large number of people thronged the ghat to perform annual rites for their ancestors, but they had to carry out the task on the roadsides. Some, along with their priests, occupied bus shelters to perform the rites.
A stretch of the Amma Mandapam Road was closed for traffic.
Water release
Meanwhile, water was released for irrigation in the Pullampadi canal at Vathalai on Tuesday morning in the presence of T.P. Poonachi, Minister for Khadi and Village Industries, and R.Vaithilingam, Minister for Housing.
About 400 cusecs of water was being released into the canal, which traverses about 90.20 km in Tiruchi and Ariyalur districts.
Over 8,800 acres will be irrigated directly by the canal. The canal feeds 28 tanks, the Sukkiran and Vettakudi tanks being the biggest ones, providing irrigation for another 13,283 acres.
Water is normally released in the canal for 135 days.
R. Manoharan, chief whip, Jayashree Muralidharan, Collector, A. James Lourduraj, Superintending Engineer, and P. Balasubramanain, Executive Engineer, PWD (River Conservation division), briefed the Ministers.
PWD officials said all irrigation canals in the district were given full supply utilising the surplus water flow.
The Corporation Commissioner V. P. Thandapani also monitored the precautionary measures taken following flood threat in rivers Cauvery and Coleroon.
