The Hindu : Front Page : Water pressure rips up dam shutter

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Saturday, Dec 22, 2007
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Water pressure rips up dam shutter

K. Raju

— PHOTO: G. KARTHIKEYAN

Forces its way: Floodwater gushing out of Kudaganar dam near Vedasandur in Dindigul district on Friday.

DINDIGUL: First of the 15 shutters of Kudaganar dam in the district was ripped off and washed away owing to heavy pressure as the storage level crossed 25 feet (full level 26 feet) in the afternoon of Friday. In less than two hours after the breach, one-and-a-half feet of water in the dam was drained into the river.

Three persons, who were fishing near the shutters on the riverside, had a miraculous escape, thanks to swift action by fishermen.

While Periasamy (26) and Muniappan (26) ran towards the bank for safety, Kaliappan (46) — all natives of Muthupalaniyur — was caught in the flash flood. He was dragged by the current. Three fishermen, Sevanthi, Kaliappan and Kumarappan, saved him from drowning, said witnesses. The mutilated shutter door was seen 150 metres away from the dam.

Over 25,000 cusecs of water has been drained into the river which joins the Amaravathi in Karur district. The inflow into the dam was 7,000 cusecs.

Around 15,000 cusecs of water was gushing out of the breached first shutter. Public Works Department officials also started discharging 10,000 cusecs through other shutters to bring down the storage level in order to undertake repair work.

PWD Executive Engineer A. Adham Mohideen said that earth moving equipment, tractors and workers from Nanganjiar dam had been mobilised to start repair work. A technical team from PWD workshop in Aliyar dam had also been summoned to assist the engineers to plug the breach. “We can start the work only when the flow recedes below shutter level,” he said.

Constructed in 1973, a section of the old dam was washed away in a massive flood in 1977 and the dam was reconstructed in 1992. While the old dam has five shutters, the new one has 10. The dam was renovated in 2002.

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