Country India Language spoken Tamil | State Tamil Nadu District Salem | |
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.
Contents
- Map of Mettur
- Drive through mettur mettur dam
- Jalagandeswarar temple deep inside the mettur dam personal video
- Economy
- Geography
- Culture
- References
Map of Mettur
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. As of 2011, the town had a population of 52,813.
Drive through mettur mettur dam
Jalagandeswarar temple deep inside the mettur dam personal video
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. SAILs 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 dams 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 Dams crest level about a 1000 ft from sea level in the north to about 4000 ft peak in the Pallamalai.
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 Perukku the 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).