Water was released from Bhavani Sagar Dam into Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) canal on Friday to benefit 1,03,500 acre in Erode, Tiruppur and Karur districts.
School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, and Minister for Environment K.C. Karuppannan raised the shutters to release the water, in the presence of Collector C. Kathiravan and MLAs. Water will be released for 120 days in the LBP main canal with ‘odd number’ sluice gates, and ‘even number’ sluice gates in the Chennasamudram canal ayacut areas. This will benefit land in Sathyamangalam, Gobichettipalayam, Bhavani, Perundurai, Erode, Modakurichi and Kodumudi in Erode district and Kangayam block in Tiruppur district and Aravakurichi block in Karur district.
Mr. Sengottaiyan told media persons that overflowing water bodies in the State had brought cheers to the farming community and release of water at the right time from dams in districts helped farmers commence farming activity. The Minister said 20,200 tonne fertilizer was available for the farmers and asked them to utilise the water judiciously.
MLAs K.V. Ramalingam (Erode West), K.S. Thennarasu (Erode East), V.P. Sivasubramani (Modakurichi), E.M.R. Raja alias K.R. Rajakrishnan (Anthiyur), S. Eswaran (Bhavani Sagar), U. Thaniyarasu (Kangeyam), and Superintendent of Police P. Thangadurai were present.
At 8 a.m. on Friday, the water level in the dam stood at 101.94 feet against the full reservoir level of 105 feet. The inflow was 5,052 cusecs while the discharge was 1,900 cusecs. The storage was 30.268 tmc against the capacity of 32.800 tmc.
