Electricity Minister M.M. Mani has said that a trial run will be held when the water level in the Idukki dam reached 2,398 ft. Talking to mediapersons after a high-level meeting of officials at the collectorate in Painavu on Thursday, Mr. Mani said that people’s concern over the opening of the dam shutters had lessened with a considerable fall in inflow into the reservoir.
People living downstream will be alerted when the water level reached 2,397 ft and a trial run will be held at 2,398 ft, he said.
Mr. Mani said that the monsoon season has not ended and the water level usually reached the maximum during the northeast monsoon season. A decision on opening the dam was taken in consideration of that too, he said adding that the trial run would be held even if the rainfall declined.
The trial run would help the people familiarise with adequate precautionary steps and security arrangements had already been taken. The dam was opened in the during the last northeast monsoon season when the water level reached 2,401 ft. He said that in the present situation, there was no point in waiting for the dam water to reach that level. Allaying the fears of the people, he said that the Cabinet decision was to wait till Saturday to see if the water level was found steadily increasing.
People should not worry, he said adding that all the five shutters would not be opened on a sudden. It would be a slow process as the central shutter would be opened first on a small scale and the other shutters too will follow suit at different phases.
At the meeting, top officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) argued that as the inflow had considerably fallen, there was non need now to open the dam. If the dam shutters were opened, a large volume of water that could be used for power generation would be wasted. It would incur loses to the KSEB. The officials of the Dam Safety Authority, however said that in view of safety aspects, the dam should be opened before the water level reached 2,400 ft.
The water level at 4 p.m. remained steady from 2.p.m. on Thursday. It was 2,396.16 ft. The water level is being recorded every hour. The rainfall in the catchment area recorded during the 24 hours on Thursday morning was 5.6 m.m.
Meanwhile, the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam on Thursday fell to 135.35 ft. This was owing to the decline in rainfall and more volume of water being released to Tamil Nadu. On Wednesday the water level was 135.4 ft.