Following the water level at the Mullaperiyar dam reaching 140 feet as against its Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 142 feet, the shutters of the dam were opened further by a feet around 2.30 am on Wednesday. As a result, the flow of water from the dam has increased from 750 cumecs to 850 cumecs.
The Tamil Nadu government which operates the dam had earlier announced on Tuesday that due to the increase in water level, the dam will be opened at 1.30 am on Wednesday and it had issued a second warning on Tuesday night requesting the people living along the banks of the dam to move to relief camps before 9 pm.
With this, shutters of 33 dams in Kerala have been opened. Many districts in the state have been inundated with water following heavy rains and controlled discharge from dams.
It has been reported that almost 4,000 people will be shifted from the banks to various relief camps in the Idukki district.
Kerala Chief Secretary, Tom Jose in a press statement had said that due to the increase in the inflow of water, the Tamil Nadu Disaster Relief Commission had informed him about the need to open the dam shutters.
The Chief Secretary had informed that the people living on the banks of the Periyar in the districts of Idukki, Ernakulam and Thrissur were asked to move to the relief camps at the time given by the district officials and cooperate with the officials.
The Idukki District Collector on Tuesday had said in a statement, “Due to heavy rains, there has been an increase in the water levels at the Mullaperiyar dam because of which there are chances of the dam shutters to be opened.”
he district of Idukki was again hit by rains after a brief calm of two days, forcing the authorities to open the shutters of the Cheruthoni dam of the Idukki reservoir.
Due to the heavy rains in the northern hilly districts, several landslides and floods have been reported from districts like Wayanad, forcing thousands of people to move to relief camps.