By IANS
New Delhi : A Kerala lawyer told the Supreme Court Wednesday that the 113-year-old Mullaperiyar dam, from where water is supplied to Tamil Nadu, be replaced with a new one. The old dam posed a threat to people living nearby, he contended and urged the court for an early hearing, which is now slated Feb 26.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal decided to hear the plea after former bureaucrat K.J. Alphonse pleaded for decommissioning the dam, located in Idukki district.
Alphonse, a 1979-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) who is also a lawyer and a Kerala legislator, pointed out to the court that the dam was built in 1895 using obsolete material and technology and had outlived its life. He said it is also located in a seismic zone, prone to strong earthquakes.
Alphonse said collapse of the dam in a quake would have catastrophic implications for over 3.5 million people in four Kerala districts – Idukki, Ernakulam, Alapuzha and Kottayam – located downstream.
Incidentally, Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan happens to be a native of one of these districts.
Delving into the history of the dam, Alphonse said 8,000 acres of land in the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore, now part of Kerala, was leased out in 1886 for 999 years to the then Secretary of British India for construction of the dam, which was eventually commissioned in 1895.
The 1886 lease deed, known as the Periyar Lease Deed, was amended in 1970 to give Kerala exclusive right of fishing in the Periyar water while Tamil Nadu was given exclusive right to generate electricity from the dam on payment of Rs.12 to Rs.18 per kilowatt of generated power to Kerala.
Tamil Nadu is opposed to decommissioning of the dam despite the grave threat to millions of Kerala people living nearby, contended Alphonse, adding that even the Central Water Commission has recommended replacement of the dam after a joint study by experts of the two states.
The experts committee has concluded that the “dam is liable to develop tensile cracks underground during seismic events”, Alphonse told the court.
“It is a miracle that the dam has existed for 113 years. No dam of similar size, made up of comparable obsolete material and technology and of comparable vintage exists anywhere in the world,” said Alphonse.