Coimbatore: A landslide triggered by heavy rain on Tuesday night brought traffic on the Pollachi-Valparai ghat road to a halt for nearly 20 hours, leaving scores of tourists and residents of the hill town stranded.Govt officials said two massive boulders rolled onto the road near the third hairpin bend around 8pm, damaging a portion of the stretch. The road, the key link between Pollachi and Valparai, was cleared only around 5pm on Wednesday. No vehicle was passing by when the landslide occurred, averting an accident.A district administration official said personnel from the highways department, police and fire and rescue services worked through the night to clear the boulders. Initial attempts to remove them using earthmovers failed, forcing officials to use rock drills to break them into smaller pieces.The closure left tourists returning from Valparai waiting for hours, without food or water supply at the spot. “We had no alternative road and had to wait throughout the night without food and water until the road was cleared,” said a tourist from Hosur. The disruption also affected the movement of essential supplies, including milk.Though rest of the western region too received intermittent showers, officials said there was no untoward incidents.In Cauvery delta region, Mayiladuthurai received heavy rains while neighbouring Thanjavur and Tiruvarur received moderate showers, offering a relief to farmers who have raised paddy crops.“The downpours have wetted the fields, providing temporary respite. The fields are irrigated for now, and the crops can survive wilting for a couple of weeks” said S Ramadoss, a farmer-representative from Nagapattinam.About 10 lakh acres of samba and thaladi paddy are under cultivation across nine central districts.Samba paddy, roughly six weeks old, is in the tillering and stem elongation stages, while thaladi crops—raised after the kuruvai harvest—are two to three weeks old and still in the seedling stage. Agriculture minister R Vinoth said irrigation channels are being desilted to aid draining of flood waters from fields.As of Oct 21, water level at Mettur dam stood at 54ft against the full reservoir level of 120ft, with storage at just 21tmcft out of the total capacity of 93.4tmcft. The inflow stands at 4,834 cusecs, while outflow was reduced to 6,003 cusecs.Down south, Madurai received negligible rain but weather experts have forecast heavy to very heavy rain on Thursday. The warning extends to Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Tenkasi, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari.Meanwhile, water levels in reservoirs continued to increase. Vaigai dam rose to 44.88ft now from 43ft last Wednesday, while Mullaperiyar reached 116.90ft.Papanasam rose to 48 feet from 45.70ft in last one week, and Perunchani reached 44.35ft from 41.97ft, govt data showed.
