A team led by Central Water Power Research Station (CWPRS) senior research officer V.T. Desai on Sunday supervised remaking of a cube from surki material collected from the same area from where the material for constructing the Mullaperiyar dam was derived. The test was being done to ascertain the strength of the surki material used for the dam as per the direction of the Empowered Committee appointed by the Supreme Court.
A senior official of the Irrigation Department said that the cube will be sent for testing at the CWPRS lab in Pune and will submit the test result to the empowered committee. The test will help in a comparative study of the strength of the surki collected from the borehole of the dam structure.
However, the official said that it is “unlikely to give a real picture as the time and temperature of making the material of surki used for dam construction and the cube differ considerably''.
The CWPRS team decided to create the surki cube after getting surki samples from the borehole dug at different blocks.
Meanwhile, the collection of core samples from the baby dam was completed on Saturday, though the collection of surki materials through the borehole continued on Sunday also.
Kerala's representatives Mullaperiyar Special Cell chairman M.K. Parameswaran Nair and Irrigation Department chief engineer P. Lathika in addition to the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department officials also visited the Mullaperiyar dam.
The official also expressed concern over getting the exact strength of surki mixture used for dam as it might have been done in a different manner than that of the small block made through a mould.
