Overnight rainfall in catchment areas of Vaigai dam and minor dams in Theni and Dindigul districts brought around 15,000 cusecs of water in Vaigai river in the city on Tuesday afternoon.
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The increased inflow that submerged the low-lying areas of Vaigai North and South Bank Roads forced the police to close down vehicular traffic on the roads as a precautionary measure.
This followed a warning from Madurai Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar to the people living along the Vaigai to stay away from the river. He also asked advised them not to allow their cattle to venture into the river.
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The entire inflow from Vaigai dam, which has been surplussing for several days now, is being released into the river. As on Tuesday morning, around 3,703 cusecs was being released into the river. However, over 1,500 cusecs of water from Sothuparai, Manjalar and Maruthanadi were also released from the dams which confluenced with the Vaigai river.
"Over and above, the water released from the dams, the rainwater from several tributaries of the Vaigai joined the river. This led to a sudden swelling of flow in the afternoon which subsided later," said Chief Engineer, Water Resources Organisation, Madurai, N. Gnanasekar.
With water having already released to fill up the tanks in Ramanathapuram district, the surplus water would be used to fill up all the 3,000-odd system tanks in Madurai, Theni and Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts. "Except for a few hours when the water flow was more than the carrying capacity of the channels when water had to flow in the river, the rest were utilised for filling up the tanks," he added.
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Irrigation of Single Crop Area
The Water Resources Organisation has decided to release water from Vaigai dam to irrigate the single crop area of 85,563 acres in Madurai and Sivaganga districts through Periyar Main Canal and 19,439 acres under Tirumangalam Main Canal from Wednesday.
However, the flood water was diverted to fill up tanks in Melur Taluk under the Single Crop Area even on Tuesday.
"We have planned to draw all possible quantitity of water in the dams and store them in all the system tanks before OCtober 1," Mr. Gnanasekar said.
The water level on Tuesday in Mullaperiyar dam stood at 136.95 feet (permissible level is 142 ft) with an inflow of 2,389 cusecs and discharge of 1,200 cusecs. In Vaigai dam, the water level stood at 70.01 feet (maximum level is 71 ft) with an inflow of 3,414 cusecs and discharge of 3,703 cusecs. The combined storage in Periyar credit was 10,764 mcft.
The rainfall (in mm) recorded during the last 24 hours ending at 6 a.m. on Tuesday are as follows: Kodaikanal 33.8, Sothupparai dam 30, Thekkadi 28.8, Mullaperiyar dam 26, Marudhanadhi dam 14.2, Shanmuganadhi dam 5.2, Veerapandi 5, Vaigai dam 4, Uthamapalayam 3.8, Gudalur 1.6, Manajalar dam 1.2 and Elumalai 0.2