Mettur
—  town  —
Mettur Location of Mettur in Tamil Nadu and India
Coordinates	11°48′N 77°48′E / 11.80°N 77.80°E / 11.80; 77.80Coordinates: 11°48′N 77°48′E / 11.80°N 77.80°E / 11.80; 77.80
Country	India
State	Tamil Nadu
District(s)	Salem
Population	53,790 (2001[update])
Language(s)	Tamil, English
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Area • Elevation	• 238 metres (781 ft)

Mettur is an industrial Town municipality in Salem district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is best known for the Mettur Dam.

However in recent years it has been associated with rampant industrial polluting, with the Chennai-based Community Environmental Monitoring (CEM) arguing in their report of November 2007 for its designation as a "Critically Polluted Area". This argument centred around an air sample which found levels of 1,2-Dicholoroethane, a known carcinogen, at 32,432 times the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎‎ (USEPA) Screening Levels. Although the Central Pollution Board is yet to respond to this argument, the findings of The Indian People's Tribunal(IPT) in 2005 and the chemical tests performed by a USEPA-approved laboratory in Oregon, USA make this one of the most pressing environmental issues in South India.^[1]

Mettur-aluminium city of Tamilnadu[link]

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 range as they reach out to merge with the Western Ghats at Nilgiris.

Economy[link]

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 one of the worst polluters of the neighbourhood, 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.Mettur is called 'Power City',Having Thermal Power Station(210MW x 4units =840 MW,New Power Station-1x600MW will start work on with in Three Months,another 600mw in 2 years construction strated ),Hydro Power Station(Dam and Tunnel(50MW x 4units=200MW))and Several Barrage Power Stations. .

Industrial pollution[link]

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.^[2]

Recent chemical analysis[link]

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:

^[1]

These high levels are made even more worrying in the case of sample sites 8 and 9, which are taken from 350 and 500 ft borewells respective.

Geography[link]

Mettur Dam

Mettur can be divided into upper and lower Mettur based on whether the part of the town lies upstream or downstream of the river.

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[link]

Neringipettai 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.

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 fisherman's boat from any of the place mentioned.

This was the place where Virappan, 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.

Festivals/famous pilgrimage centers[link]

St Marys' church is one of the famous church. The annual feast of this church will be celebrated on every year of 15 aug. This the second largest church in salem district.

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 18 is the famous festival for cauvery delta people.

Mecheri Kaliamman kovil is famous for "Amavasai". Hundreds of thousands of people started coming since 1am from near villages.

Demographics[link]

As of 2001^[update] India census,^[3] Mettur had a population of 53,790. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Mettur has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 64.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 66%. In Mettur, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Hospitals[link]

Mettur has good Hospitals :'GOVERNMENT HEAD QUARTERS HOSPITAL -SALEM DISTRICT'-Ultrasound Scan,X-Ray Unit,ICC WARD,STD CLINIC,more details--http:www.salem.tn.nic.in/DHEALTH.HTM... TARUN CLINIC (Child specialist clinic located at Raman nagar). RAJAMMA HOSPITAL at raman nagar run by dr.k.selvamani dgo dr saravanakumar da withan operation theatre complete clinical lab and back up support from superspeciality drs

Transport[link]

Road ' 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 50km Travel)without reaching Salem

Rail ' It has got a railway station from where it is connected to salem .There is a daily express train to chennai from Mettur Dam and in the return direction too.

Air Nearest airport is Salem Airport which has daily flights to Chennai.

Problems[link]

1. Pollution - where the concentration of SPM is higher than what is warranted for a healthy living. 2. Good Quality Eateries. 3. Places for recreation.

Politics[link]

Mettur assembly constituency is part of Dharmapuri (Lok Sabha constituency).^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.Mettur.com
• www.metturtravels.com

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