The special panel led by former Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, appointed by the State government to probe the four simultaneous bursts on February 25 on the 1,200 mm pre-stressed concrete transmission mainline carrying water from Aruvikkara to the city, conducted inspections at Aruvikkara and the burst sites on Friday.
The panel, comprising Additional Director General of Police P. Chandrasekharan, Kerala Water Authority Chief Technical Examiner Abraham Joseph and KWA Chief Engineer C. Supran apart from Mr. Jayakumar, first visited Aruvikkara, where the members interacted with field staff and learned how the system there worked.
Later, accompanied by KWA Managing Director Ashok Kumar Singh and Chief Engineer (South) P. Sreekumaran Nair among other senior KWA officials, the panel held detailed inspections at the burst sites, including those at Koottampara near Karakulam and at Vazhayila. One of the online valves, near the Thankamma Stadium, Peroorkada, too was inspected by the panel.
Interacting with the media, Mr. Jayakumar said the panel had examined how the system worked, how the break pressure tank at Aruvikkara functioned, how the various pumping mechanisms were operated and monitored, the various online valves and how the closing of any of these could lead to a burst. Detailed discussions on what the panel learnt would be held with technical experts, he said.
Mr. Jayakumar, who said the panel was planning to receive inputs and any other information available from the public on March 27, said it was still too early to comment on the sabotage angle and also on whether it was the closure of a valve that had led to the simultaneous bursts. The panel, he said, had been set up to probe how the bursts occurred, and no angle, including that of the valve being closed, would be ruled out.
The initial hope was that the panel would be able to submit its report by March 31, but it might require another 10 days to finalize and decide on its findings, he added.
The government had set up the panel after the four bursts on the eve of the Attukal Pongala, with even Chief Minister Oommen Chandy not ruling out the possibility of foul play in the incident. The bursts had led to widespread disruption of water supply in the city for over two days, though the Attukal region and the Pongala festival, which had tens of thousands of people converging in the capital city from across the State, remained largely unaffected.
