A sub-committee of the ‘Supervisory Committee’ will monitor the Mullaperiyar Dam regularly, a meeting of the high-power panel under the Supreme Court order to oversee the raising of the water level and other related issues, decided on Tuesday.
The sub-committee to start functioning from September 1 will monitor the water level in the Periyar dam on a daily basis and submit a report to the Supervisory Committee every week, M.V. Nathan, Chief Engineer, Dam Safety Organisation, Central Water Commission (CWC), told reporters here.
The sub-committee, comprising one executive engineer (EE) from CWC, one EE and Assistant EE each from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, will function for now from the Kerala Irrigation Office in Thekkadi. If the water level in the dam rose to 140 feet, the sub-committee should take reading on hourly basis and assess the situation.
At that juncture, the Supervisory Committee would convene a special meeting to assess the situation, said Mr. Nathan.
The latter would again meet on September 26 to discuss future course of action.
Power supply to damThe Kerala government had also agreed to provide power supply to Periyar dam to operate the shutters and lighting facility to monitor the dam during nights.
While the panel granted nod to Tamil Nadu to rehabilitate the path between Baby dam and the main dam, Mr. Nathan and Tamil Nadu PWD Secretary M. Saikumar alone inspected the dam on Tuesday morning. Kerala member M.V. Kurien joined the evening meeting.