Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004 |
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Madurai
By S. Sundar
Though PWD officials have issued a flood alert, cattle heads have been left to roam along the Vaigai banks near Taikal in the city on Tuesday. — Photo: S. James
MADURAI, NOV. 16 . The copious water in Vaigai dam has come as a boon to the Public Works Department to have a trial run in the Nilayur channel, which is fast nearing completion. A total of 94 rain-fed tanks, including 50 in Madurai district, 23 in Sivaganga and 21 in Virudhunagar, could be supplemented with the Vaigai water. According to the compendium of rules governing the PWD, water through the channel could be released only after both Vaigai dam and the Big Tank at Ramanathapuram overflowed. As there was drought in the last few years, farmers doubted whether the channel would ever get water. Over 98 per cent of the construction of 8.675 metres of the main canal and 12.5 km of the branch canal has been completed on an outlay of Rs. 19.5 crore, provided by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. The work began in 2000. The tanks have an ayacut of 10,000 acres. "We are planning to have a trail run, making use of the Vaigai flood water. However, initially water would not be drawn to the canal's capacity of 650 cusecs," said KR. Ramakrishnan, Assistant Executive Engineer, Gundar Division.
Causeways closed
The Madurai Corporation will close the causeways across the Vaigai near Kalpalam, Aruldosspuram, Obulapadithurai, and Kuruvikaran Salai for vehicular traffic. The Mayor, C. Ramachandran, and the Commissioner, A. Karthik, inspected the Vaigai dam today and discussed the situation with K. Pandikaruppanan, Executive Engineer, Periyar-Vaigai Basin Circle, and Ganesh Babu, Sub-Divisional Engineer (Vaigai Dam). All the Corporation engineers would monitor the situation round the clock and take preventive steps, according to a Corporation press release.
Sholavandan vulnerable
Sholavandan is likely to be inundated, in case of a flood. Water would get stagnated in huge pits dug on the riverbed for sand quarrying in the Karupatti and Irumbadi areas. Sandy obstructions downstream near Sholavandan would divert the gushing floodwater into the low-level areas, an engineer said. Only additional measures would minimise the impact, he added. He said the Vaigai itself had catchments equivalent to 70 per cent of the catchments of the dam. "If a couple of spells of heavy rain due to a cyclonic depression in the plains coincided with the huge release of water in the riverbed, it would lead to inundation of the low-level areas in the city also," he said. A possible flood could be avoided if only the quantum of flow into the Vaigai dam was released continuously, he added.
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