Srirangapatna: Thanks to copious rains in the catchment areas of Kodagu, water level at KRS Dam in Mandya District has crossed the 100 feet mark. According to statistics provided by Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited, water level this morning stood at 101 feet as against a maximum level of 124.80 feet.

Last year (2020), the Dam reached 100 ft on July 8 and in 2019, on the same day (July 8), the Dam recorded 83.65 feet. This morning, the Dam recorded an inflow of 12,413 cusecs, with an outflow of 2,266 cusecs. The water level of the Dam stood at 99.52 ft yesterday. The Dam is expected to receive more waters in the next few days as monsoon has picked up in catchment areas.

However, the water level in the Dam is lower as compared to the previous year. Datewise, as on July 20, 2020, the water level at the Dam was 106 ft. The late surge in water level is attributed to delay of monsoon rains this year. KRS has a storage capacity of 49.45 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) and at present, the Dam has 22.44 tmcft of water, which is just about half of the full capacity. 

The Indian Meteorological Department, Bengaluru and Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) have predicted moderate to heavy rains in the catchment areas till next week. 

Apart from irrigating lakhs of acres of land in several districts of Mysuru region, the Dam water will be supplied to Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru for drinking water purposes.