CUMBUM: Kerala officials have brought sophisticated machinery to identify parts of the Mullaiperiyar dam that can be demolished to channel water to a proposed dam, about 300 m away.N K Parameswara Nair, advisor to the Kerala Dam Protection Commission, M Sasidharan, former chief engineer of the irrigation department, P Lathika, chief engineer, and other officials were part of the inspection team.They have decided to either reduce the height of the sluices to 94 ft from 136 ft or to break the Baby dam at a depth of 42 ft.On Wednesday, another team, led by Isa P Nair, director of the department of engineering, arrived with advanced equipment for underwater scanning of the dam. This inspection work will continue for three days from Thursday.Despite opposition from some officials from Tamil Nadu, the team from the Kerala Engineering Research Institute (KERI) carried out a one-day inspection at the dam on Thursday. In the morning, Tamil Nadu official, led by an executive engineer with the public works department, stopped the KERI team at the boat-landing area from entering the dam. They said prior permission was needed to carry out any kind of inspection.However, officials from Kerala said Tamil Nadu had been informed of the visit by mail. Later, the KERI team carried out the inspection.The KERI was collecting the details, including the bed-level of the dam, as per the instructions of an expert team from the Kerala government. “There are various proposals for dismantling the dam. One of which is to cut the spillway and let the water flow from there. For this, details about the bed-level are being collected, based on which a final decision can be made about how much length should we cut open,” sources said.
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