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Friday, Mar 23, 2007
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State firm on demand for new dam

Staff Reporter

N.K. Premachandran says State has prepared a preliminary project report for new dam.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran has said that the State Government will not go back on its demand for a new Mullaperiyar dam in place of the century-old structure which is posing a grave threat to the lives and properties of thousands of people downstream.

Inaugurating a convention organised by the Confederation of Mullaperiyar Action Committees here on Thursday, the Minister said Kerala was ready to ensure that Tamil Nadu got the same quantum of water it had been receiving during the last 20 years from the new dam also.

He said the State Government had prepared a preliminary project report for constructing a new dam about 1,300 feet down the existing one. A detailed project report would be prepared later. The new dam, he said, was estimated to cost about Rs.260 crore. If Tamil Nadu was not coming forward to share the cost, Kerala would have to construct it on its own. Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had made a mention about the new dam in his budget speech.

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P.C. Cyriac said Kerala should demand decommissioning of the existing dam in a phased manner because of its unsafe condition. He said Tamil Nadu would be forced to propose a new dam then. In the case of the disputed Mullaperiyar dam, the river involved flowed through Kerala, and yet the State had never objected to supply of water to Tamil Nadu, he added.

The convention was organised in collaboration with the Kerala Vypari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi. Mullaperiyar Expert Committee member M. K. Parameswaran Nair was among those who spoke on the occasion.

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