Water level in Idukki reservoir crosses 2,402ft

IDUKKI: The water level in Idukki reservoir rose to 2,402.3 feet on Sunday at 4 pm. However, the dam safety officials again reduced the release of water from Idukki dam to 700 cu m/sec from 800 cu m/sec on Saturday evening and 115 cu m/sec water was used for power generation. This has again brought down the water level in Cheruthoni Dam. The officials on Saturday evening closed the two shutters of Cheruthoni reservoir.
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Meanwhile, the water level in the Idukki slowly rose.Once it reaches the full reservoir level (FRL) of 2,403 feet the KSEB dam safety wing will be forced to release more water from the dam. But, the catchment area of the reservoir recorded low rainfall during the past 24 hours. Around 4.3 cm rainfall recorded in the catchment area during the period.
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The water level in Mullaperiyar dam came down to 140.1ft on Sunday compared the 141.3 feet on Saturday evening. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam who was inspecting the damaged Kottarakkara-Dindigual NH at Erachilpalam near Kumily in Kerala-Tamil Nadu border said that Tamil Nadu was not in favour of reducing the water level in Mullaperiyar dam to 139 feet. “The Supreme Court had allowed raising the water level to 142 feet. But TN government will consider the flood situation in Kerala,” he said. Paneerselvam also handed over two trucks of relief materials to Kerala collected by TN government and AIADMK. “The traffic in the Kottarakkara-Dindigual route will be reassumed within one week,” he added.
Meanwhile, the district remained cut off from the rest of the state for the last six days, due to the damaged roads at different sections. The district headquarters Cheruthoni is isolated and the mobile network is not resumed in the area.
Idukki district collector Jeevan Babu K said most of the areas in the district were facing serious issues like damaged roads and disrupted communication network. Munnar still continues to be isolated as the three roads to the hill station are completely damaged. A heavy landslide at Munnar Headwork's Dam destroyed the connectivity of Munnar-Aluva route. A bridge destroyed near Periyavara in Munnar blocked the connectivity of Munnar- Udumalpet route leading to disruption of goods movement. The Munnar-Kochi-Dhanushkodi national highway was blocked due to a landslide at Munnar Government College route.
Many tourists are also stranded in Munnar, according to residents. A landslide was reported in Nellippara near Kattppana on Sunday, but there were no casualties.