Water level at the Mettur dam, with an inflow of over 80,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) on Sunday, is inching closer to the 100-foot mark.
At 8 p.m., the level crossed 99 feet and would touch 100 ft by midnight, according official sources.
Compared to its position on Saturday, the dam continued to receive copious water during the day, increasing the level from 89.59 feet to 95.26 feet on Sunday morning. The storage also rose by six thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft), from 52.18 tmc ft to 58.87 tmc ft. A total of 6,674 cusecs was released. Officials are gearing up for the water release for cultivation scheduled for August 12, as they inspected sluices and checked their proper functioning.
Meanwhile, the inflow at Biligundlu in Krishnagiri district on Sunday showed a fall of around 5,000 cusecs over the day. Sources in the Central Water Commission told The Hindu that the flow decreased from 90,000 cusecs at 10 a.m. to 85,000 cusecs by 6 p.m. and continues to fall gradually.
“This is a drop of 11,000 cusecs in 24 hours”, they said, adding that discharge from Karnataka dams might have gone down following respite from heavy rainfall.
