9 months since SC panel last visited Mullaperiyar dam
The water level of the 122-year-old dam has now reached 135.95 ft against its full capacity of 142 ft causing worry.
Kottayam: The three-member supervisory committee appointed by the Supreme court in 2014 has not visited the Mullaperiyar dam to check its safety for the past nine months.
The water level of the 122-year-old dam has now reached 135.95 ft against its full capacity of 142 ft causing worry. The panel's last visit was on November 14 last year.
The SC had entrusted the committee comprising of a chief engineer under the Central Water Commission and representatives of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Though the committee headed by Dam Safety Organization chief engineer Gulshan Raj, Kerala’s representative Tinku Biswal and K.S. Prabhakar of Tamil Nadu decided to visit this April, it did not happen due to the unavailability of members.
Many of the decisions taken at its previous meetings including the maintenance works of the equipment at the gallery and the instrumentation parts were still not done.
The previous meeting agreed to complete it within two months. Though the state demanded the gate operating schedule for the shutters of the spillway, and the Tamil Nadu promised to give it within a month, it's not made available.
“It has affected pre-monsoon evaluations," a source said. Other works than Kerala police looking into the security aspects and Tamil Nadu doing the routine maintenance require the concurrence of the supervisory committee.
“We are supposed to visit the place frequently, however, due to other preoccupations we are not able to do it,” Ms Biswal, also the water resources secretary, told DC. She said that the committee had decided to visit dam by August 4.