Minor tremors felt in Kochi

Solar commission calls off proceedings midway

April 26, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:48 am IST - KOCHI:

People stand outside the Kerala State Housing Board building, Panampilly Nagar, after minor tremors were felt in Kochi on Saturday.– Photo: By Special Arrangement

People stand outside the Kerala State Housing Board building, Panampilly Nagar, after minor tremors were felt in Kochi on Saturday.– Photo: By Special Arrangement

Tremors felt in North India following an earthquake in Nepal had little impact in the city on Saturday though residents in some pockets claimed to have felt vibrations akin to tremors.

The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) received reports of minor tremors felt especially in Kaloor and Kadavanthra regions besides from Marine Drive, Thevara, and Panampilly Nagar areas. While occupants in some high rise buildings in the affected areas stepped out into the open, whatever little impact went mostly unrecognised.

“Very minute tremors were felt,” said M.E. Jameela, Deputy Collector (Disaster Management).

Sekhar L. Kuriakose, head of the State Emergency Operation Centre, ruled out any tremors being generated locally. “There was just a wave propagation of the tremors felt in North India, which was captured by the six digit seismographs and accelerometers jointly installed along the Idukki group of reservoirs by the State Disaster Management Authority and KSEB,” he said. The exact area of the impact could not be gauged since the tremors had happened outside the range of those instruments, which in itself was an evidence ruling out any locally generated tremors. Mr. Kuriakose said that apart from Kochi no impact had been reported from anywhere else in the State.

As reports of tremors being felt in Kochi swept social media networks, many anxious Malayali expatriates rang up their families back home. “I rang up my parents at Paravoor Kavala near Aluva. They came to know of the tremor only after getting my call,” Reshmi Rajesh, who is working at Abu Dhabi, said.

However, G. Sivarajan Commission inquiring into the solar scam called off the proceedings midway through after those present felt a slight tremor at the eighth-floor office of a building at Panampilly Nagar.

“The hanging tube lights also started swinging. So we called off the sitting at around 12.30 p.m. and vacated the building. We decided to close the office for the day following reports of possible after shocks,” said P.S. Divakaran, secretary to the Commission.

Emerging from the sitting, CPI leader Pannian Raveendran, who was deposing before the Commission, joked with the waiting media persons that it was a prelude to the political earthquake set to hit the State shortly.

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