TIRUPUR: Minister for medical and family welfare Dr K G Arunraj on Wednesday released water from Thirumoorthy dam under the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) to irrigate 94,201 acres in the second-zone command areas of Palaru riverbed.The minister appealed to farmers to use water judiciously and extend cooperation to the water resources department in water distribution work.As per a govt order issued on chief minister’s directions, water will be released from Nov 4, 2026, to Jan 3, 2027, for 60 days at intervals, not exceeding a total of 3,500 million cubic feet (including conveyance losses), based on demand. For the old ayacut areas under the Thali canal, covering 3,076.36 acres, a separate release has been sanctioned for the same period, not exceeding 250 million cubic feet (including losses), based on requirement.On Wednesday, water was released into the PAP main canal at 250 cusecs, to be increased in stages up to the canal’s full capacity of 912 cusecs. For the old ayacut areas, 20 cusecs was released into the Thali canal.The release is expected to benefit agricultural land in Udumalpet, Madathukulam, Palladam, Dharapuram and Kangayam taluks in Tirupur district, and Pollachi and Sulur taluks in Coimbatore district.District collector C Muthukumaran (IAS) presided over the event, in the presence of Dharapuram MLA P Sathiyabama.Revenue divisional officer (Udumalpet) Kumar, water resources department superintending engineer M Karthikeyan, executive engineer Prabhakaran, assistant executive engineer Sakthikumar, assistant engineer Ramachandran, WRD officials, farmers’ association representatives, farmers and other officials attended.
