Kerala - Kottayam   

`Seepage at Mullaperiyar within permissible limit'

Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM: A high-level delegation that visited the overflowing Mullaperiyar dam on Wednesday has allayed fears over the safety of the century-old structure and said the rate of seepage was still within the permissible level. According to the delegation, the current rate of seepage was 78.93 litres a minute.

The five-member delegation, led by P. Lathika, Chief Engineer, Irrigation, Design and Research Board (IDRB), C. N. Sathi, Director, and technical expert M. K. Parameswaran Nair, has asked the Tamil Nadu authorities to remove the silt and debris that has collected at the spillway, hampering the overflow.

The Tamil Nadu authorities had failed to remove the debris even after the Kerala Forest Department had issued formal sanction for clearing the area for smooth flow of water. They told the delegation that there was no necessary budget allocation for the removal, and hence they were not able to undertake the work.

The delegation, which arrived at the dam site at 10.30 a.m., spent over two hours inspecting the dam, the gallery, the baby dam and the spillway.

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`Seepage at Mullaperiyar within permissible limit'

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