Water released into Kalingarayan Canal for irrigation

The State government had ordered the release of water from June 16 to October 13 for a period of 120 days to benefit farmers in Erode, Modakkurichi and Kodumudi taluks

Water was released from the Bhavanisagar dam into the Kalingarayan canal to carry out farming on 15,743 acres in Erode on June 16.

The State government had ordered the release of water from June 16 to October 13 for a period of 120 days to benefit farmers in Erode, Modakkurichi and Kodumudi taluks. Water was released from the dam that reached Kodiveri anicut and later reached Kalingarayan anicut at Kalingarayanpalayam in Bhavani.

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Officials of the Water Resources Department and members of the farmers association opened the sluices at the anicut at 7 a.m. and water was released into the canal. Initially, 100 cusecs were released that were stepped up over the day as officials said that the discharge would be increased to 2,300 cusecs in the coming days. 

The canal runs for 91.10 km and irrigates 6,374 hectares of land of the three taluks and farmers started to prepare them for cultivation. Turmeric would be cultivated in over 65% of the ayacut areas, sugarcane and banana would be cultivated in about 25% of the ayacut areas and paddy in 10% of areas. 

At 8 a.m., the water level at the dam stood at 79.86 ft. against the maximum reservoir level of 105 ft. while the storage was 15.61 tmc against the capacity of 32.80 tmc. The inflow was 462 cusecs while the discharge was 800 cusecs in Arakkankottai and Thadapalli canals, 200 cusecs in River Bhavani for drinking water, 100 cusecs in Kalingarayan canal and 5 cusecs into Lower Bhavani Project canal.