Chennai, Nov 8 (BPNS)

The Salem district administration is to open the shutters of the Mettur dam on Tuesday after the water level in the dam is rising to its optimum level.

On Monday morning the water level at the Stanley reservoir in Mettur dam touched 118 feet and inflow at 27000 cusecs, the Salem district administration is expecting the dam to touch its Full Reservoir Level(FRL), 120 feet by Tuesday evening.

Salem district collector, S. Karmegam visited the Mettur reservoir on Monday morning and speaking to media persons said that both Krishna Sagar and Kabini reservoir in Karnataka has attained their maximum level and the total discharge is 9883 cusecs. The district collector said that if the present situation continues dam would reach its full reservoir level by Tuesday night and discharge would commence.

The District collector told media persons that the engineers at the dam are monitoring the situation on a full-time basis and 12 district collectors of the delta region are being timely alerted on the developments. He said that as the rains are continuing the initial discharge from the Mettur dam could be 30,000 cusecs.

The district collector said that based on the inflow into the dam, the discharge could be decided. Salem district collector also requested people living on the banks of River Cauvery and other low-lying areas to move to safer locations.

The district administration has also geared up for any eventuality and Fire and rescue department and one company of NDRF is also positioned in the district for any eventuality.