Kerala has blamed Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court of not installing critical instruments at the Mullaperiyar dam to keep a watch on seismic data despite recommendation by the Dam Safety Assurance Rehabilitation Project (DSARP) three decades ago.
“The State of Kerala has been persistently requesting the State of Tamil Nadu to install two seismic accelerographs as recommended by a DSARP panel and the issue was also discussed in the Supervisory Committee meetings. However, Tamil Nadu has not yet installed the two strong motion accelerographs, one at the main dam and other one in the gallery in the concrete backing portion, as recommended by the Dam Safety Assurance Rehabilitation Project (DSARP) 1991, even after three decades,” an affidavit filed by Kerala in the top court contended.
Kerala said the accelerographs would have helped to gather sufficient data based on the relative responses of the dam and the new concrete backing to seismic events. The State said the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam lies in seismic zone-III in the seismic zoning map of India.
