The Stanley Reservoir in Mettur was opened for farm-related activities in Cauvery delta districts on Thursday.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami opened the sluices at 10.30 a.m. after a special pooja . This is the first time a Chief Minister was opening the shutters of the Mettur dam.
About 2,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water were released initially and it was increased to 4,000 cusecs by 4 p.m. The Chief Minister said the discharge will be increased to 20,000 cusecs gradually.
The water level in the dam stood at 109 ft on Thursday morning against its full level of 120 ft. The storage level stood at 76.996 tmc (thousand million cubic feet) against the full capacity of 93.47 tmc. The dam was receiving an inflow of 1,01,277 cusecs. “With the current inflow, the dam will achieve full reservoir level (FRL) of 120 ft in the next three days,” he said.
Ministers K. A. Sengottaiyan, P. Thangamani, K. P. Anbalagan, M. R. Vijayabhaskar, V. Saroja, K. C. Karuppanan and members of various farmers’ associations were present.
Though it was customary to release water on June 12 every year, it was deferred this year owing to poor storage level. This was the 85th year that water was being released from the Mettur dam.
As per the annual irrigation calendar of the PWD, water was usually released for 230 days from June 12 to January 28. The farmers from the delta districts will be in need of about 330 tmc of water for raising kuruvai, samba and thaladi in about 16 lakh acres.
