indigenous lake tapping aimed at providing uninterrupted water supply was carried out at the Koyna hydro- electric project in Satara district on Wednesday at the hands of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.

The tapping is aimed at generating an additional 1,185 million units of electricity every year and will ensure that the fourth stage of the Koyna project continues to operate uninterrupted.

This will also help to supply water to drought- hit areas of Satara. The State aims to be free of power outages by the end of 2012.

Even if the water levels in the Koyna dam falls during summer, Maharashtra may be able to get uninterrupted power supply from the hydro- electric project with the state successfully completing the lake tapping and underground tunnel project on Wednesday.

The project, which consists of an underground tunnel that was commissioned through controlled underwater explosions, will ensure that power can be generated even if the water levels in the dam falls. This is for the second time that the lake-tapping experiment was conducted. The previous one was carried out in 1999.

MUMBAI: After a gap of thirteen years, lake tapping will be done at the Koyna dam in Satara district on Wednesday. The first lake tapping was done at Koyna dam in 1999 by the state government. The dam was commissioned in the year 1962. "Lake tapping will help the government in providing uninterrupted water supply for the Koyna Hyrdo Electric Project. The project generates 1960 MW of power," Sunil Tatkare, irrigation minister said. "Besides, addressing the power issue, lake tapping will help in providing additional 15 TMC water to the Krishna Valley projects" the minister added.

The State government on Monday termed Tamil Nadu questioning the State’s right to utilise Cauvery water as “illegal” and “inhuman”, and sought the Centre’s intervention to prevent the neighbouring state from raking up the water-sharing issue “unnecessarily”.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected Tamil Nadu’s interlocutory applications seeking its intervention. But Tamil Nadu has once again filed another application just to provoke us. Such attitude needs to be stopped, the Centre should intervene,” Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda told the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

AHMEDABAD: The state government's ambitious Kalpasar dam project, which is estimated to cost Rs 30,000 crore, could lead to earthquakes in the state. This was pointed out by senior scientists taking part in a workshop at the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Gandhinagar.

With passions reaching fever pitch between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the decommissioning of the century-old Mullaperiyar dam, experts are asking whether dams do collapse in India?

Three dams have collapsed in Andhra Pradesh in the last five years. These include the Subbaraya Sagar in East Godavari in 2010, the Palamvagu Dam in Khammam in August 2008 and the Gundlavagu Dam in Warangal district in 2006.

‘Sequence and timing of tremors a pointer'

Even as the government is going all out to pacify the people affected by the tremors experienced in parts of Idukki district last Friday, a section of earth scientists feel that the increased seismic activity in the area can be attributed to the reservoir of the Idukki arch dam.

In a bid to curb sound pollution, most of the mandals in Kolhapur city preferred playing traditional instruments this year, in place of high decibel sound systems, during the immersion of Ganesh idols on Sunday.

The local police, various social organisations and the media had relentlessly campaigned for the last few weeks, highlighting the need for mandals to refrain from using pre-recorded loud music on sound systems during the procession.

The police had warned that erring mandals would face stringent action under the Noise Pollution Control and Regulation Rules, 2000.

Emphasising the need for adequate compensation for farmers whose land is acquired for development projects, BJP leaders on Tuesday addressed a gathering on the requirement for coming up with alternative methods to grant benefits to the agriculturists.

Seeking suggestions on alternate methods of compensating farmers, Arun Jaitley Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said farmers face injustice a

The state forest department has issued eviction notices to 49 windmills stating that they have illegally encroached on forest land at Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary in Satara district.