Pambar dam’s fourth shutter snaps open due to electrical glitch, drains out the reservoir

One of the shutters of Pambar dam snapped open, draining out the reservoir by half, in Uthangarai, Krishnagiri on September 1. The shutter control break down was noticed on Thursday morning after the fourth shutter was found open to an horizontal angle. Of the reservoir’s full capacity of 19.69ft with 243mcft of water, the dam was drained to 100mcft. The water level stood at 9ft as of Thursday forenoon. 

The breakdown of the shutter control has now been attributed to an electrical glitch caused by a trip failure. Speaking to The Hindu, Jayakumar, Assistant Engineer, Pambar dam, said, the shutter control is electrical and the line should trip causing the shutter movement to stop. However, the panel was found burnt causing a trip failure that had caused the breakdown in shutter control, Mr.Jayakumar said.

Now, the PWD officials have stepped in to drain the reservoir out of 39mcft of water inorder to start the repair works. “The water should be brought down to the crest level for the works to start. The basic works of bringing down the shutter to close will be completed in three days. But the entire work will be completed in 15 days,” Mr. Jayakumar said.

The dam had reached full capacity early this week, with 19.80ft of water in the reservoir.  On Monday, all the five shutters were opened to release 5,250 cusecs of water, in the wake of excessive rains and inflow into the dam. The breakdown in the shutter has impacted aquafarmers, since the reservoir was auctioned out for aquaculture. The reservoir has now been drained out of its fish into the river.

The administration had issued a flood alert along Thenpennai river. Pambar dam’s watershed includes over 2,501 acres in 12 villages of Uthangarai in Krishnagiri and over 1,499 acres in Harur block of neighbouring Dharmapuri district.

Earlier, Collector Dr.V. Jayachandra Bhanu Reddy inspected the dam and issued an alert to villages along Thenpennai river.