Kerala - Palakkad   

Moolathara dam repair to begin next week

PALAKKAD: The repair of the breached right bank protection structures of the Moolathara dam at Chittur will begin next week after the rain and will be completed before December 15, V.K. Mahanudevan, Executive Engineer, Chitturpuzha Irrigation Division, said here on Monday.

The weir and regulator-cum-bridge of the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) system breached on Sunday after Tamil Nadu released water from the Aliyar dam, where water rose following heavy rain.

Mr. Mahanudevan said the work on the earthen bund would be completed on a war footing so that water released from the Aliyar dam could be regulated through the Moolathara weir.

The repairs would not affect irrigation of paddy fields in the Chitturpuzha irrigation scheme areas as a small bund would be constructed to release water. He said the farmers need not have any anxiety on that count.

Top officials of the Water Resources Department, led by Chief Engineer K.K. Ramesh from Kozhikode, inspected the damaged areas of the dam on Monday and worked out a plan for its immediate repair.

K. Sudheer, Deputy Director, Joint Water Regulation Subdivision of PAP, Parambikulam, said the officials at Aliyar were monitoring the water flow to the dam.

Now 440 cusecs (cubic feet a second) of water was being released from the dam to prevent it from reaching the full reservoir level of 1,050.09 feet. The water level remained at 1,049.9 feet on Monday.

K. Krishnankutty, former Chittur MLA, said there was a shortage of officials on the dam sites at Aliyar and Thirumurthy to monitor the water flow.

After a visit to these places, Mr. Krishnankutty said that at Aliyar, most of the officials were absent. An assistant executive engineer, an assistant engineer, three supervisors and six others had been posted there. Similar was the situation at Thirumurthy.

The office of the Kerala government remained closed there on Monday. He said this was the main reason for the failure to take urgent measures on Saturday night when water was released from the Aliyar dam. He said the government had failed to provide facilities for the officials to stay near the dam site at Aliyar and Thirumurthy.

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