Officials on alert in view of heavy discharge into Kollidam

TIRUCHI As the water flow in the Cauvery river crossed one-lakh mark, the barrage across the Kollida

As the water flow in the Cauvery river crossed one-lakh mark, the barrage across the Kollidam river at Mukkombu was opened again on Sunday to discharge flood water from the Mettur dam. 

It is the third time within six weeks that the barrage is opened to discharge flood water following the heavy discharge of water in the Cauvery river from the Stanley reservoir at Mettur.

The barrage was opened on July 17 for the first time since its construction. The Water Resources Department (WRD) discharged more than 40,000 cusecs for three days from July 20. 

Since the WRD discharged entire inflow into the Stanley reservoir following heavy inflow, the authorities opened the Kollidam barrage at Mukkombu for the second time on August 2.

It carried more than two lakh cusecs of water for about a week. Heavy discharge of flood water continued up to third week of August. 

According to sources in the WRD, after a gap of about 10 days, the discharge into the Cauvery river from the Stanley reservoir has gone up since Saturday. The Upper Anicut realised about 75,000 cusecs at 6 a.m. on Sunday. It further went up to one lakh cusecs in the afternoon. It recorded about 1.29 lakh cusecs at 5 p.m. on Monday. 

Of this, 37,000 cusecs of water was released into the Cauvery river from the Upper Anicut and the remaining 92,000 cusecs was discharged into the Kollidam river.