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Revision as of 09:30, 8 February 2014 by John of Reading (talk | contribs) (Typo/general fixing, replaced: the the → the using AWB)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Town in Tamil Nadu, India| Mettur | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Mettur Dam | |
| Country |  India |
| State | Tamil Nadu |
| District | Salem |
| Elevation | 238 m (781 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 53,790 |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Tamil |
| • Other | Tamil, English |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| Vehicle registration | TN-52 |
Mettur is an industrial and tourism town located in the Salem district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is best known for the Mettur Dam.
Mettur is known for its huge dam, power, chemicals and aluminium. The maximum percentage of water requirements for irrigation in Tamil Nadu depends on the Mettur Dam. Usually the dam opens in June every year for irrigation in the Kaveri Delta. Mettur is one of the sources of electricity for Tamil Nadu. The Mettur Thermal Power Station acts as a base load power station for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.
Stanley Reservoir
Mettur Dam also called as Stanley Reservoir,constructed across Kaveri River in TamilNadu.It was constructed on 1934 took 9 years to complete.Maximum height and width of the Dam are 214 and 171 feet respectively.Maximum storage height is 120 feet. Mettur Dam receives the water from both Kabini Dam and Krishna Raja Sagara Dam located in Karnataka. There are 2 hydro electric power stations in Mettur Dam. First Hydro Power station was constructed in British Ruling period and Second was on Indian Republic.There is a park under Dam called Ellis Park maintained by Tamil Nadu Public Works Department.
Electrical Power
Mettur is one of the sources of Electricity for TamilNadu.It has Thermal and Hydro Electric Power Stations.
Thermal Power Station acts as one of the base load power stations for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board TNEB.Capcity of Thermal Power station is 840MW. Presently it has 4 units of 240MW each.There is new power station under construction of capacity 600MW.
There are two Hydro Electric Power Stations at Mettur called Dam and Tunnel Power House respectively.Dam power house having capacity of 40MW and Tunnel Power station having capacity of 200MW.
Mettur is also having several Barrage Power houses located in the bank of Kaveri River namely Chekkanur,Nerinjipettai,UratchiKottai.
It is having one of the largest private sector power suppliers MALCO, with a power generation capacity of 100 MW from four units of 25MW each .
Mettur- Aluminium city of Tamilnadu
Mettur also called Aluminium city of Tamilnadu.It has its Aluminium plant Called MALCO-Madras Aluminium Company Ltd.Malco has its own bauxite mines at Yercaud (Salem district) and Kolli Hills (Namakkal district).It is one of the five integrated primary aluminium producers in India, with an alumina refinery capacity of 55,000 tonne per annum (tpa) and an aluminium smelter capacity of 29,500 tpa...
Economy
Mettur has a number of industries; an important one is Mettur Chemicals (now known as Chemplast) which has four large plants manufacturing chemicals, soaps and industrial gases and MALCO (Madras Aluminium Company). MALCO runs a matriculation and higher secondary school. SISCOL (Southern Iron and Steel Company Limited, now a part of Jindal groups(JSW Steel Ltd)) is a new addition to the region though it is located a little off Mettur. SISCOL is located at Pottaneri, 15 km from Mettur and 32 km from Salem the district headquarters. SAIL's Salem Steel plant is nearby.High grade granite is quarried in the Eli Karadu Hills.
Geography
Mettur can be divided into upper and lower Mettur based on whether the part of the town lies upstream or downstream of the river.
Mettur, meaning 'town with crests and troughs', obtained its name owing to the undulating rocky nature of the land that makes the town an ideal place for the dam on Cauvery river the life line of north and central Tamil Nadu. Stanley Reservoir.
Mettur is located at border of the Erode, Salem and Dharmapuri districts and equidistant from the district headquarters and about one and half hours by road from these district headquarters.
Palamalai (malai means hill in local lingo) is an offshoot of the Eastern Ghats geographically contiguous with the BR hills Biligiriranga Hills range as they reach out to merge with the Western Ghats at Nilgiris.
The town houses the Stanley reservoir, which is a standing example of British stone masonry and the dam 1700 metres in length. The reservoir capacity touches 120 feet, when full and could go few feet beyond its full capacity during surplus seasons.
The town is hemmed to a narrow strip of less than a kilometre (the dam's length) in width by the cauvery let out by the Dam on the east and Eli karadu (Mouse hill) on the west which forms an interesting pattern of three similar peaks with identical longer shoulders to their left increasing in height from the Dam's crest level about a 1000 ft from sea level in the north to about 4000 ft peak in the Pallamalai.
Local legend
There is Park Located Beneath of Mettur Dam,Where you can see Snake park,Deer park and beautiful seanaries of Dam along with spicy fish curry.Charge for site seeing of Dam fixed Rs 5/Head.
Nerinjipettai is about 4 km from the heart of Mettur at the foot of palamalai, the hills almost reachout to the river with just the State Highway from Mettur to Erode between the river and the hills.There is a boat transportation to poolampatti,a suiting spot.
Pannavadi parisal thurai near Kolathur is located 12 km far from Mettur. There is a boat transportation in between the Kolathur and Nerupur of dharmapuri district. The boat transportation also available from koattaiyur it is 20 km far from mettur. When the water level decreases in Mettur dam, we can see an Old Nandhi statue, an old church, a palace (Koattai) of Tippu Sultan which was sunk inside the water. It is nearer to Koattaiyur and Pannavadi. It is possible to travel by fishermen's boat from any of the place mentioned.
Palar, located 30 km from Mettur is at the border for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu State.Male Mahadeshwara Hills famous pilgrimage in Karnataka for lord shiva located 40 km from Mettur.From There you can reach Mysore also.
This was the place where Veerappan, notorious for his exploits for the extinction of Sandalwood and Tuskers in the whole forest regions straddling about 2000 km² raging from Anaimalai to Hogenakkal spread across the three states Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka once gave a slip to the law enforcers while they were chasing him from Salem Government Hospital where he had ended a Deputy superintendent of police's life after the latter was admitted with serous injuries from a land mine planted by Veerapan.
Culture
Edithaangi Muniappan Kovil is one of the famous Hindu temples located near to the stanely reservoir. It was built by a British engineer during the period of designing stanely reservoiur. St Marys' church is one of the famous churches in Mettur.. The annual feast of this church will be celebrated on every year on 15 Aug. Thanga Malai Murugan temple within the town is a local attraction during festivals. Villagers in Mettur celebrate the Mariamman festival during the summer vacation time (Month of may) and lasts for one whole week. Aadi Perukkuthe famous festival is celebrated every year on 18th day of Tamil month Adi. Mettur R.S Kalimamman Kovil is also a much revered temple to the people living in the upper part of Mettur Dam. Mecheri Kaliamman kovil is famous for "Amavasai" (No moon day).
Demographics
As of the census of India 2001, Mettur had a population of 53,633 comprising 27,169 males and 26,464 females, making the sex ratio (number of females per thousand males) of the town to 974. A total of 5,380 people were under six years of age and the child sex ratio (number of females per thousand males under six years of age) stood at 898. The town had an average literacy of 80.5%, higher than the national average of 59.5%. A total of 9,058 comprising 18.77% of the population belonged to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 367 comprising 0.76% of the population belonged to Scheduled tribes (ST). There were are total of 13,076 households in the town. As of 2001, Mettur had a total of 16,693 main workers: 60 cultivators, 190 agricultural labourers, 247 in house hold industries and 16,196 other workers. There was a total of 1,418 marginal workers: 4 marginal cultivators, 62 marginal agricultural labourers, 93 marginal workers in household industries and 1,259 other marginal workers.
Transport
Mettur being close to the transportation hubs of Erode and Salem is well connected to both these cities as well as to Dharmapuri. Bus services operate from Erode & Salem at the most frequency, with bus services once in every 5 minutes.There is short cut for Coimbatore from Dharmapuri via Thoppur,Mettur,Bhavani(Can Save up to 20 km Travel)without reaching Salem by NH47 due to the high volume of traffic between Coimbatore and Salem, especially between Coimbatore and Avinashi on NH47. There is route to Mysore-Karnataka through Madeswaran Malai and Kollegal.
It has got a Railway Station (in the upper part of Mettur Dam )from where it is connected to salem .There is a daily express train to chennai from Mettur Dam and in the return direction too.
Nearest airport is Salem Airport which has daily flights to Chennai.
Industrial pollution
Mettur's industrial development has taken a heavy toll on many parts of its farming and fishing communities. However despite protest from both international groups such as Greenpeace and locals such as West Gonur Farmers' Association or SpeakOut Salem! the local authorities have failed to bring the problems under control.
Recent tests undertaken by Dr Ruth Stringer and Dr Mark Chernaik of ELAW-US (an Oregon-based environmental laboratory) revealed high levels of contamination. From nine samples taken from aroung the plants run by Chemplast and MALCO, the following 17 chemicals were found to be at levels significantly above USEPA 'safe' levels:
Politics
Mettur assembly constituency is part of Dharmapuri (Lok Sabha constituency).
References
- "Primary census abstract 2001". Directorate of Census Operations – Tamil Nadu. 2001. Retrieved 2012-12-29.
- "The Stranger- the Chlorine Industry in India", Greenpeace International, 1996. Page 21 & 66
- "Unfolding Disaster. A Study of Chemplast Sanmar's Contamination in Mettur" (PDF). Community Environmental Monitoring. November 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- "List of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies" (PDF). Tamil Nadu. Election Commission of India. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
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