A team of TN public works department (PWD) engineers will visit Mullaperiyar Thursday to fill holes dug by experts to study structural safety of the dam.

Principal secretary (PWD) M. Saikumar said the work would be completed in four days starting Thursday. The experts appointed by a Supreme Court-constituted empowered committee (EC), which studied safety of the 116-year-old structure, reportedly dug seven six-inch wide and 130-190-foot deep holes across the 1,200-foot main dam.

CHENNAI: The Supreme Court-constituted expert panel to study the safety of Mullaiperiyar Dam has overstepped its brief in making suggestions for resolving the inter-state issue, Tamil Nadu PWD Senior Engineers Association (TANSEA) observed on Monday.

“The AS Anand Committee was only asked to report on whether the dam was safe or not. It did not have any business making recommendations to Kerala to build another dam,” TANSEA secretary A Veerappan, said addressing a press conference here.

KOCHI: The structural stability, strength, safety, height of water, effect of seismic forces, hydraulics, effect of leakage etc on Mullaperiyar dam are basically to be decided by expert civil engineers, IIT panels etc. It is learnt that in the report, the Empowered Committee has considered the reports by the civil engineers, IIT panels/technical bodies, technical members in the committee etc. Accordingly, the dam is safe and sound and the height of water can be increased.

The report of the Empowered Committee, though subject to condtions, was in favour of constructing a new dam to replace the existing one at Mullaperiyar, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said.

The nominee of the State on the committee, K.T. Thomas, had done his best to protect the interests of Kerala. He had expressed the views of Kerala in his dissent note and had listed six reasons for keeping the water level in the reservoir at 136 feet. The only objection was that he had not made any dissent on the finding that the dam was safe, Mr. Chandy said.

Member of the Supreme Court appointed Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar Dam Justice K.T. Thomas on Thursday said it was unfortunate that some quarters had sought to politicise and whip up emotions on the panel's report, instead of looking at it rationally.

"Those who are finding fault with the report are doing so without understanding its contents fully.In a matter like this emotion should not get precedence over reason," Justice Thomas, the nominee of Kerala on the panel, told agencies.

KOTTAYAM: Pressing for a new dam to replace the century-old Mullaperiyar reservoir, Kerala Water Resources Minister P J Joseph today said the state would place before the Supreme Court its objections to the Empowered Committee's report which concluded that the structure was safe.

Holding that the exisisting dam was weak, he told reporters here that the state would place its demands and objections to the report submitted by the apex court appointed committee when the matter comes up for hearing on July 23.

With the Supreme Court deciding to consider petitions seeking lowering of the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam and that relating to construction of a new tunnel, the Mullaperiyar dam row appears set to dominate public debate in Kerala for months to come.

The ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) has its task cut out once the copy of the Empowered Committee report becomes available to it: it should go back to the basics of the issue and come up with arguments that will place the committee's inferences and recommendations and see how best it can defend Kerala's case before the apex court.

CHENNAI: The five-member Supreme Court empowered committee on the Mullaiperiyar issue has emphasised on Tamil Nadu’s rights over the existing dam and all its waters, under the 1886 lease deed and the 1979 agreements, and said that the rights should be ‘fully honoured’. Apart from clearly stating that the dam is safe in all aspects and strong enough to hold water upto the level of 142 feet, the committee, in its report, has recommended the restoration of the water level to 142 feet, which was lowered to 136 feet in 1979.

Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa said on Saturday that the state government’s stand on the Mullaperiyar dam has been vindicated by the Supreme Court appointed empowered committee’s report, which vouched for the safety of the dam.

The five-member SC committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India A. S. Anand, had said “the dam is hydrologically, structurally and seismically safe” and asked Kerala to reconsider its decision to decommission the existing dam and build a new one.