The Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee on the Mullaperiyar dam today finalised its much-awaited report on various aspects of the structure and will submit it to the court on Wednesday.
The five-member committee, headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Mr A.S. Anand, met here today and finalised the report that is understood to have focused on all aspects of the 119-year-old dam, including its safety.
“The report has been finalised. All the members have signed the report today. We will be submitting it to the Supreme Court on Wednesday,” the former Supreme Court judge, Mr A.R. Lakshmanan, told reporters here.
The committee, which was set up by the apex court in February 2010 to go into all aspects of the dam, has visited the dam site several times and conducted tests and studies through various agencies on aspects, including safety.
While Mr Lakshmanan represents Tamil Nadu, the former Supreme Court judge, Mr K.T. Thomas represents Kerala.
The finalisation of the report comes on the heels of tensions between the two States over the safety of the dam.
While Tamil Nadu contends that the dam is safe and its water level has to be raised from 132 ft to 136 ft, Kerala says the structure is weak and it has to be replaced with a new dam.
As tensions rose between the two States in December last year, a two-member technical team of the Empowered Committee visited the site and is understood to have concluded that recent tremors in that region did not have any impact on the Mullaperiyar and Idukki dams and that they were safe.
The committee's tenure was extended after February this year to enable it to complete the report.