Kerala wants new dam at Mullaperiyar

Kerala advocate Mohan Katarki appearing before a bench headed by Justice D K Jain said, that “the Expert Committee Review of 2001 did not check the stability of the dam by applying combinations ‘C’ and ‘F’ of the Indian Standards. These combinations concern testing of the dam in flood conditions.’’

He refuted the arguments of Tamil Nadu that flood is of a transitory nature of half an hour in Mullaperiyar dam. Tamil Nadu witness R Subramanian has admitted in the cross examination that water level in the dam had twice risen to 142.60 ft and stayed at the level for 3 days indicating long inflow of water, he said .

The estimation of probable maximum flood (PMF) and flood routing studies conducted by Dr A K Gosain, Head of Department of Civil Engineering, IIT, Delhi should command acceptance of the apex court as no rebuttal evidence has been led by Tamil Nadu, said Katarki during the arguments which remained inconclusive.

The entire bed and banks of river Periyar is in Kerala and Tamil Nadu has no pre-existing right to construct the dam, he submitted.

Kerala government has been saying that there was a danger to the 112-year old dam and it needed to have a new dam on the river.

Tamil Nadu had approached the apex court challenging the constitutional validity of the Kerala government conducting a survey for constructing a new dam on the river.