New Delhi, Friday 07 January 2011: The Kerala government has been asked to reply to the technical report of the Empowered Committee regarding Mullaperiyar dam. Two weeks time has been given to reply.

The committee will hear the argument of Kerala and Tamil Nadu on February 17th and 18th respectively. The decision was taken in the meeting of the Empowered Committee on Friday.

This was the first meeting after the visit made by the members of the panel to Mullaperiyar. Technical experts who are part of the panel presented their views regarding the security of the dam. .

Earlier report on January 06

A five-member expert diving team from Orissa on Thursday conducted a survey in the Mullaperiyar dam to identify areas which needed further studies. The team which reached the dam area at 10.30 a.m. conducted diving exercises, though it was abandoned by noon due to extreme cold in deep waters.

The visit of a technical team consisting of officials of the Central Soil and Material Research Station, New Delhi, and the Central Water Power Research Station, Pune, entrusted by the high power committee appointed by the Supreme Court for conducting technical study on the condition of the dam left the area by evening.

They collected samples of the materials used for constructing the dam and marked three areas for future analysis. During its next visit, the team will study the dam’s condition in the deepwater areas using modern equipment. The team collected details of the areas where Kerala claimed that excess leakages were noticed, which clearly showed the poor condition of the dam.

The technical team will submit a report to the high power committee to pave way for the final technical analysis of the dam’s safety.

Meanwhile, M. Sasidharan, Mullaperiyar special cell member, who accompanied the team, alleged that the expert team conducted the analysis with a partial mind supporting the interests of Tamil Nadu.
He said the report of the team was likely to be in favour of supporting the interests of Tamil Nadu, which claimed that the dam was safe and posed no threat to the people living downstream.

January 05

An expert team consisting of members from the Central Soil and Material Research Station, New Delhi, and the Pune-based Central Water Power Research Station visited the Mullaperiyar dam area on Wednesday to collect technical details about the present condition of the century-old dam. The team, which reached Madurai on Tuesday, collected maps and other details about the dam.

Though expert deep water swimmers were brought by the team, they were not entrusted with any work on Wednesday. It is expected that the team will collect details about the dam’s condition in inaccessible areas by using underwater cameras.

Kerala claims that there are leakages below the water level, which it says, are a clear proof of the weakness of the dam. The report by the team will be submitted to the high power expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court which is scheduled to hold its sitting on January 7.

Though it was alleged that Kerala was not informed of the visit by the team, Mullaperiyar Special Cell chairman M.K. Parameswaran and senior officials of the water resources department accompanied the team.

The team consists of D.R. Rajpal Singh, joint director, Central Water Power Research Station; senior research officials Pankajkumar, V.D. Vythriy, Rizwas Ali and Cauvery Water Tribunal technical committee member Siva Subramanyam.