Mullaperiyar water level inching towards benchmark 136 feet

MADURAI: Water level in the Mullaperiyar reservoir is slowly inching towards the benchmark figure of 136 feet.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court recently allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water in the reservoir to 142 feet.
A sub-committee of the supervisory committee, which monitors the water level, will visit the Mullaperiyar dam on Thursday to take stock of the situation.
On Thursday morning, the water level touched 135.30 feet. The inflow was 2,957 cusecs and 456 cusecs of water was discharged from the dam.
The catchment areas like Periyar and Thekkady received rainfall of 26.6mm and 1.4mm respectively.
Public works department sources said the water level might cross the 136-foot mark by Friday. “The rainfall in catchment areas is not heavy. Hence, we expect a gradual rise in the water level,” a PWD official said.
Meanwhile, farming community in the region was hoping that the water level migt cross 136 feet by Thursday night. “We are planning some celebrations on Friday to mark our joy”, said R Arulpragasam, one of the farming community leaders in Madurai.