The Empowered Committee, which is to assess the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam, will visit the site of the proposed dam of Kerala on Tuesday.
The committee, headed by A.S. Anand, former Chief Justice of India, reached Thekkady on Monday evening. The committee members, A.R. Lakshmanan and K.T. Thomas, former Supreme Court judges and former Secretary to the Ministry of Water Resources and C.D. Thatte and former Chief Engineer of Central Water Commission, D.K. Mehta and Sat Pal, member secretary of the committee, also reached Thekkady.
Incidentally, the Empowered Committee was formed by the Supreme Court following a suit filed by Tamil Nadu. Constituting the committee, the apex court had also said the committee would submit its report after considering all aspects, including Kerala's demand for a new dam as well as the safety of the existing one.
N.K. Premachandran, Minister for Water Resources, Kerala, received the team members at Thekkady.
While Mr. Thomas represents Kerala in the committee, Mr. Lakshamanan represents Tamil Nadu.
The committee members were given presentations on the general layout of the existing dam, its power house and other details by N.K. Parameswaran Nair of the Mullaperiyar Special Cell of Kerala and R. Subramaniyan of the Cauvery Technical cell and Inter State Water Wing of Tamil Nadu. K. Jayakumar, Deputy Chief Secretary of Kerala was also present during the presentation.
Mr. Thomas sought details of the site of the proposed dam from the members of the special cell. The cell members also explained the features of the existing dam to the visiting team.
The team members will visit Mullaperiyar dam and Vallakadavu region on Tuesday before leaving for Kochi.
