With a lull in rainfall, water level started declining though at a mild level in the Mullaperiyar dam on Wednesday. The water level at 4 a.m. was 139.20 ft and it declined to 138.90 ft at 4 p.m.
The inflow to the dam has declined and all the 13 shutters are remaining open at 90 cm releasing 8,263 cuecs of water to the Periyar. Tamil Nadu was drawing water at 2,194 cusecs.
However, the water level was remaining stagnant despite the five shutters remaining open in the Cheruthoni dam of the Idukki reservoir. The water level at 4 p.m. was 2,387.40 ft, which was the same level reported at 7 a.m. The shutters two, three, and four had been kept open at 140 cm and shutters one and five at 40 cm, releasing 346.28 cumecs.
Water from the two dams were being released as per the rule curve fixed by the Central Water Commission. The shutters of the Cheruthoni dam may be closed with the new rule curve level effective from Wednesday midnight as the maximum storage level will be raised from 81% to 84% till August 20.
An official of the Dam Monitoring and Research Station told The Hindu that all the shutters would not be closed at once. They would be closed in a phased manner as the maximum storage as per the new rule curve was 2,386.81 ft.
The present water level was higher than the maximum water level as per the new rule curve. Water was flowing over the chappathu (low-lying bridge) downstream of the Cheruthoni dam now, he said.
He said power generation at Moolamattom continued to be at a high. It was 17.61 mu on Tuesday.
