Flood alert as Chekkanur barrage sluice gate breaks

COIMBATORE: A flood alert has been sounded for villages located along river Cauvery after a sluice gate of Chekkanur barrage broke down in Salem district on Thursday. The seventh gate of the hydropower house gave away, triggering large outflow of water. The sluice gates of Chekkanur barrage, located on Cauvery river at almost seven kilometers from Mettur dam broke down around 4.15 pm. There are a total of 18 sluice gates for the barrage that generates about 30 mw of electricity.

On receiving information, Mettur sub-collector Meganatha Reddy and PWD officials immediately rushed to the spot and held inspections. As the volume of water outflow is huge, the officials issued a flood alert for people residing along the banks of the Cauvery. Also power generation was stopped and works were taken up to fix a temporary sluice gate to stop the gushing waters. District collector V Sampath, inspected the barrage, and told journalists that .4 (point four) tmcft of water stored in the barrage has been released.

“As a huge volume of 15,000 cusecs of water is flowing out, a flood alert has been issued to people living along the banks in Edappadi, Mettur and Sankagiri areas. The flood alert was issued by tom-tom and through local cable televisions. Repair works are underway to fix the broken sluice gate,” he added.