VELLORE: The Ponnai river, one of the tributaries of the Palar river is in spate, thanks to excess water being drained from reservoirs in bordering Andhra Pradesh draining into Ponnai, cheering the farming community in the region. The last time Ponnai received as much water flow was in 2005.
Ponnai River is one of the major tributaries of Palar river. Thanks to the good rainfall in Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh the tanks and reservoirs are getting filled up, the spillover from these water-bodies get drained into Ponnai river.
District collector Nanthagopal along with PWD and other officials on Wednesday inspected the floodwater gushing through the river. He visited the Melpadi village where the Ponnai river has a dyke to divert the water to various tanks and other water bodies.
According to PWD officials, the dyke constructed in 1855 has diversion channels on the east and the west sides, feeding around 129 system-tanks in the basin, of which 111 tanks fall within the Arakonam, Sholinghur and Tiruvallur taluks (in Tiruvallur district). The other channel feeds 18 tanks in Katpadi taluk.
Officials claim that the inflow into Ponnai for the past two days has helped fill up the tanks up to 50 percent of the their capacities.
The check dam across the Palar helps diversion of water to a tank in Kaveripakkam which is the biggest tank in the district. The tank has a capacity to hold 1,450 million cubic feet of water and as the inflow from Ponnai and other sources have increased, the water level in this tank has risen to 625 million cubic feet on Thursday.
Officials claim that if the rains continue for the next few days, all tanks in Ponnai basin will fill up. Out of the 519 tanks maintained by the PWD, 229 had risen to full capacity on Thursday. Out of 198 tanks in Arakonam taluk, 190 had filled up. Also 33 out of 86 in Wallajah taluk and 42 out of 94 in Arcot taluk have filled up, the officials added.