Following the continuing rise in water level in the Cheruthoni dam despite one of its shutters being being opened on Thursday, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) opened two more shutters of the dam on Friday morning.
According a report by Madhyamam, both the shutters were opened at around 7 am on Friday after the water level touched 2400.94 feet. The Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of the dam is 2403 feet.
With this, three shutters of the dam have been opened in total. The two shutters that have been opened on Friday morning are reported to be releasing three times the water that was released from the single shutter that was opened on Thursday.
As per the report by Madhyamam, the initial plan was to release double the amount of water on Friday as compared to Thursday but with the reservoir levels reaching full capacity, it was decided by the authorities to release thrice the amount of water from the dam.
For the first time in 26 years, one shutter of the dam was opened on Thursday as water levels rose to nearly 2,399 feet in the reservoir, just 4 feet below its full capacity. At 12:30pm on Thursday, one shutter of the Cheruthoni dam was opened 50 centimetres to let the water out.
The shutter was opened at 12:30 pm for a trial run. It was initially decided to keep it open for four hours but since the reservoir levels kept rising, it stayed opened throughout the night.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday night put out a statement saying that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the situation in the state.
“I had informed the PM about the condition in Kerala and also thanked him for sending the armed forces for help, immediately,” the CM said in his statement.
Pinarayi VIjayan also said that he had called up his counterpart in Karnataka, HD Kumaraswamy, to enquire about the situation in Karnataka, as parts of the state were also hit by rains.
“Kumaraswamy has said that the Karnataka government had opened the shutters in the Kabini river to allow the water from Banasura dam in Wayanad to be released,” said Vijayan.
According to officials from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the rains which lashed the state on Wednesday are expected to continue on Friday as well.