Chennai, Sept 1 (BPNS)

The Pambar dam of Tamil Nadu was half drained out on Thursday after the fourth shutter of the dam snapped open following an electrical glitch.

The reservoir has a full capacity of 19.69 ft with 245 mc ft of water and it was drained to 100 mc ft of water due to the snapping of the fourth shutter. The district administration has issued a flood alert along the banks of Thenpennai river. It is to be noted that the Pambar dam’s watershed includes over 2501 acres in 12 villages in Uthangarai in the Krishnagiri district. 1499 acres of land in neigbouring Dharmapuri village will also be affected by the Pambar water flow.

Engineers of the Pambar dam noted that the fourth shutter was snapped open on Thursday morning in a horizontal angle draining out half of the water in the reservoir.

An official with the Tamil Nadu water resources department told IANS that the opening of the fourth shutter was due to an electrical glitch that was caused due to a trip failure. Engineers attending to the snap said that panel was found burnt which led to a trip failure creating breakdown in shutter control.

The Water Resources department officials have to bring down the water level to 39 mc ft to commence the repair as the water has to be brought down to the crest level for the works to start.

Engineers with the Pambar dam told BPNS that the entire process to bring the shutters back to the earlier position would require 15 days.

It may be noted that the dam had reached the full capacity of 19.80 ft and during heavy rains, 5250 cusecs of water were released from the Pambar reservoir last week. The aqua farmers have been affected most due to the water drained out of the Pambar dam as the reservoir was auctioned out for aqua farmers. The fish has now been drained out into the river.