A five-member independent expert panel conducted a comprehensive safety evaluation of the 130-year-old Mullaperiyar dam in Keralam on Tuesday to assess its structural integrity.
The inspection was conducted in accordance with a 2022 Supreme Court order on a petition filed by Keralam native Joe Joseph, a medical doctor, seeking an assessment of the dam’s hydrological, seismic and structural aspects to ascertain whether the century-old structure posed a risk to public safety. After Tuesday’s inspection, Joshi told reporters that the panel would hold discussions with officials from Tamil Nadu and Keralam this week and submit its report to the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) within 15 days. The panel, headed by Balraj Joshi, former CMD of the National Hydro Electric Power Corporation, visited the dam and its premises at Vallakadavu near Kumily. Keralam has long been demanding a safety audit of the dam as well as a new dam to replace the existing structure. “There is a clear format for this NDSA-ordered inspection. It is spelt out in the NDS Act. As part of the evaluation, we will impartially examine whether the structure is stable for general public safety. It is an old dam after all. Can it carry out its intended public function? Apart from Joshi, the panel includes ML Sharma, professor at IIT Roorkee; Ashutosh Dash, retired special secretary of the Odisha Water Resources Department; Gopal Dhawan, former executive director of the National Hydro Electric Power Corporation; and N. Sivakumar, former scientist at the Central Soil and Materials Research Station. Dash is Keralam’s representative on the panel. The dam has been at the centre of the interstate water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Keralam for decades, with both States differing over the validity and fairness of the lease agreement. Keralam has long advocated a new dam at the site, citing the structure’s design and construction — stone rubble masonry with lime mortar grouting using 19th-century techniques. Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, has maintained that the existing structure is safe and does not require replacement.
We will examine the design, engineering, instrumentation and seismic aspects,” said Joshi. “We will have to see how and whether the structure fits into our current engineering paradigm,” he added.
Besides examining the structural aspects of the dam, the panel will study the accumulation of silt in the reservoir and recommend measures to deepen its water-holding capacity. Though the dam is located in Keralam, it is owned and operated by Tamil Nadu. A seismic analysis conducted in 2021 by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, had concluded that the main dam as well as the baby dam at Mullaperiyar could suffer significant damage in the event of an earthquake, potentially even leading to failure. The 130-year-old dam was commissioned in 1895, primarily to provide water to the arid farming region in and around Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
