The Tamil Nadu government has constituted a State Committee on Dam Safety and a State Dam Safety Organisation under the provisions of Dam Safety Act, 2021.
The Engineer-in-Chief and Chief Engineer (General) of Water Resources Department will be the ex-officio Chairperson of the State Committee, constituted under Sub-section (1) of Section 11 of the Act.
The Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, State Dam Safety Organisation; Chief Engineers of Water Resources Department for Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchi regions; Chief Engineer/Hydro, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd., are members of the panel.
A senior official told The Hindu that Mullaperiyar, being an inter-State dam, would not come under the new panel. But it would be under the purview of the National Dam Safety Authority. According to the National Register of Large Dams, released in June 2019 by the Central Water Commission, of the 5,334 then existing large dams across the country, 118 are in Tamil Nadu.
Director, Hydel Civil Design (East & North-East), Central Water Commission, New Delhi, (nominated by the Chairman, Central Water Commission) and Chief Engineer – Hydro Project Monitoring Division, Central Electricity Authority, Union Ministry of Power, (nominated by the Chairperson, Central Electricity Authority) are also on the panel.
Chief Engineer, Kerala— Sholayar, Upper Bhavani Dams; Chief Engineer, Puducherry-Veedur Dam; Director (Dam Design/Hydrology), Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai; Director, Centre for Water Resources (Dam Design/Hydrology), Anna University, Chennai and Director (Dam Design/Hydrology), National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi are also members. The Superintending Engineer of the State Dam Safety Organisation will be the Member Secretary.
Those in the State Dam Safety Organisation, constituted under sub-section (1) of section 14 of the Act are: Chief Engineer, Superintending Engineer, Executive Engineer, Dam Documentation Cell, four Assistant Executive Engineers, Dam Documentation Cell and eight Assistant Engineers, Dam Documentation Cell.
Executive Engineer, Dam Design and Hydrology Cell; three Assistant Executive Engineers, Dam Design and Hydrology Cell; 10 Assistant Engineers, Dam Design and Hydrology Cell; Executive Engineer, Dam Hydro-mechanical Cell; four Assistant Executive Engineers, Dam Hydro-mechanical Cell and eight Assistant Engineers, Dam Hydro-mechanical Cell, are also on the panel.
