IDUKKI: The sub-committee constituted by the Supreme Court-appointed High Power Supervisory Panel for Mullaperiyar Dam inspected the site on Tuesday.Led by Gulshan Raj, Chief Engineer (dam safety) with the Central Water Commission, the three-member team inspected the main dam, baby dam, gallery and the spillway. S K Prabhakar and Tinku Biswal, members from Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively, accompanied Gulshan Raj.
The committee decided to accept the demand by Kerala for an operative manual for the shutters of the spillway. This will be given within a month after conducting a technical discussion. The Kerala representatives took a stand that the issues raised by TN in cutting the trees near the spillway and allowing the road via Vallakkadavu should be discussed with the Forest Department. The meeting directed TN to replace the roofing sheets of the police quarters on the dam premises.
The committee also decided to obtain permission from the supervisory committee for all construction activities at the dam and the sub-committee must meet once in a month. TN asked for the committee’s permission to install a seismograph and a facility to measure rain at the dam. The supervisory committee decided to visit the dam next April. The maintenance work of the equipment at the gallery and the dam should be finished in three months. A study to examine the changes while the water level rises in the dam using the Geodetic depletion method will be done.
The team started from Thekkady at 11 am and the three-hour-long meeting after the visit to the office of the Supervisory Panel in Kumily ended at 7 pm. The inspection found the seepage from the gallery is 69 litres per minute. Kerala sub-committee member and executive engineer George Daniel, assistant executive engineer N S Praseed, Tamil Nadu sub- committee members and executive engineer Sam Irvin, assistant executive engineer E E Subrahmanyan were also part of the sub-committee visit.