Chennai, Oct 12 (IANS): The water level at the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu's Salem district reached the maximum capacity on Wednesday early morning after heavy rain, said officials.

After the dam touched the maximum capacity, excess water was released into River Cauvery. Water Resources Department officials told IANS that 23,000 cusecs of water was released from the Mettur dam.

The officials told IANS that this was the second time that the water level in the Mettur dam touched the full reservoir level this year. The water resources department in a statement said that the water inflow stood at 29,000 cusecs on Wednesday morning and the storage was at its full capacity of 93.47 TMC.

The statement said that 23,000 cusecs of water was discharged from the Mettur dam to the River Cauvery through the powerhouse tunnel and 5000 cusecs were discharged through the 16- vent Ellis saddle surplus sluices. The remaining water is being discharged through the East-West bank canal for irrigation purposes.

The heavy water flow into the Mettur dam was following the heavy rain in the catchment areas of the dam. Salem district has witnessed heavy rain for the past three days.

The Meteorological department had predicted heavy to very heavy rain in Tamil Nadu during the last week of October indicating the arrival of northeast monsoon. However, the cyclonic depressions in Bay Of Bengal had led to heavy rain in many parts of Tamil Nadu leading to good water levels in reservoirs and dams.