The shutters of Red Hills and Chembarambakkam reservoirs were opened on Tuesday to release 500 cusecs of surplus water following heavy rainfall in catchment areas.

The water resources department officials opened the sluice gates of the Red Hills reservoir at 1 pm to release 500 cusecs of water into the surplus course with the water level in the reservoir touching 20.20 feet as against its full level of 21 ft.

“The Red Hills reservoir which spreads over 20.89 square km has a total storage capacity of 3,300 million cubic feet. As of Tuesday 8 am, the water storage at the lake stood at 3,206 Mcft with an inflow of 728 cusecs. The reservoir received 3.3 cm of rain in the last 24 hours,” the official said. The flood warning has been issued at areas such as Vadakarai, Puzhal, Vadaperumbakkam, Manjampakkam, Manali and Sadayankuppam, he added.

At Chembarambakkam, the water was released into Adyar river at 2 pm after the water level reached 23 feet as against its capacity of 24 ft. “We are releasing 500 cusecs of water. Depending on the inflow, we will decide on whether to increase the discharge or not,” the official said. The low-lying areas along the Adyar river have been issued flood alert even though the discharge would not cause any impact considering the carrying capacity, the officials noted. The water storage in the reservoir stood at 3,364 million cubic feet (mcft) as against its full capacity of 3,645 mcft.

The combined storage capacity of all the four reservoirs including Poondi and Cholavaram touched 10,986 mcft as against its capacity of 11,757 mcft. On the same day last year, the water storage stood at 5,734 mcft.

WATCH VIDEO: Scenes of water rushing out.

The Poondi reservoir storage stood at 3,135 mcft against its total capacity of 3,231 mcft. “We are discharging 874 cusecs into Kosathalaiyar river for the last two days,” the official said.