TIRUVANNAMALAI: Over 1,500 cusecs of water was released into the Thenpennai River from Sathanur Reservoir on Tuesday evening after the water level in the dam rose to 117 feet as against the maximum storage capacity of 119 feet.
PWD officials said that they started releasing the water from the reservoir at about 4.30 pm. “Initially 500 cusecs of water were released from the reservoir. We started releasing 1,500 cusecs at about 5 pm as the water level rose to 116.9 feet. At about 6 pm on Tuesday, the inflow of water to the reservoir stood at 3,056 cusecs,” said an official.
Of the 1,500 cusecs of water released, 500 cusecs water released through shutter and 1000 cusecs of water released through power generation unit to boost power generation.
Since all the system tanks of Sathanur dam have already filled up due to heavy rain in the last 10 days, the water would be discharged into the sea.
It may be recalled that the Sathanur reservoil was last at optimum capacity following the Thane cyclone in December 2011. Since then, the reservoir’s water level has never risen above 95 feet. “Since November 9 this year, the water level rose from 86 feet to 117 feet. From now on, we will discharge the inflow water through power generation unit and shutters to maintain the water level at 117 feet,” said the official.