The Supreme Court-appointed supervisory committee on Monday allayed the fears of Kerala about seepage in the Mullaperiyar dam. The committee inspected the dam after its water level touched 142 feet.
The baby dam was strong and safe and dampness on its outer wall was sweat and not seepage, said L. A.V. Nathan, its chairman.
Reacting to queries and doubts raised by Kerala irrigation officials and media about the condition of the dam at a closed-door meeting, Mr. Nathan clarified that the dampness on the walls was quite common.
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When Kerala officials showed a pool of water 100 feet away from the dam during the inspection, Tamil Nadu PWD engineers clarified that it was stagnant rainwater. When Kerala officials raised the issue of constructing a toe drain along the dam to assess the seepage level, the Tamil Nadu engineers informed the committee that they had already appealed to Kerala for the construction of the toe drain for which no permission had been granted till now. Reacting to comments that the baby dam was weak, the PWD officials clarified that the proposals for strengthening it were pending since 2006 as Kerala insisted that the main dam be strengthened first.
The team inspected the baby dam thoroughly and also the outer wall of the main dam. It spent two hours at the site. The committee expressed satisfaction over the strength of the dam that has 140.90 feet of water. Seepage level was also under permissible level.
When Kerala officials pointed to the dampness and seepage in the main dam, the Tamil Nadu officials explained that seepage was only through joints of the concrete coating and pressure at the middle level was low when compared to the bottom of the dam, sources said.
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Inflow into the dam was 1,014 cusecs and the discharge 2,100 cusecs. Storage was at 7,369 mcft.