Issuing a warning regarding the same, district administration said in a release, "With this, 330 cumecs of water will be discharged. Hence the people along the banks of Periyar from Cheruthoni town should remain vigilant."
The authorities also said that the water will reach Eriyaad, Poyya regions of Thrissur district and various parts of Kodungallur Municipality within 15 hours from afternoon, hence, the people in these regions are have been asked to remain cautious.
The Idukki reservoir consists of two dams, the Arch dam and the Cheruthoni dam and the shutters of Cheruthoni dam were opened for the first time in 26 years in 2018, to mitigate the worst flood faced by the state in a century.
Meanwhile, the four spillway shutters of Malampuzha dam were raised by 80 cm today. As the water inflow into the Banasura Sagar reservoir in Wayanad district has increased, the district administration has informed that apart from the already opened shutters, one more will be opened by 10 cm. "This might increase the water level in the Kabani river by 10 cm," the authorities said.
The Ernakulam district administration has urged people residing along the banks of Periyar river to remain vigilant after the Idamalayar dam was opened today to discharge 50 cumecs of excess water. The water level at the Mullaperiyar dam, which is managed by the Tamil Nadu government, is at 139.6 feet, prompting the authorities to raise 10 shutters by 90 cm each and three by 30 cm each discharging 2,216 cusecs of water.
Cusecs is the volume of water discharged measured in cubic feet per second. While when the same is measured in cubic metre per second, it's called cumecs. One cusec is equivalent to 28.32 litre per second.
(With inputs from agencies)
