Published Sep 01, 2026 | 6:28 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 01, 2026 | 6:28 PM
Mullaperiyar dam
The Supreme Court-directed comprehensive safety evaluation of the 130-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam has begun with a five-member expert panel examining the dam’s hydrological, seismic and structural safety.
The inspection follows the Supreme Court’s 8 April 2022 order in a case filed by Kothamangalam native Jo Joseph. The exercise is significant given the age of the masonry gravity dam and the long-running safety concerns surrounding it.
The panel is headed by Balraj Joshi, former Chairman and Managing Director of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).
Other experts include Gopal Dhawan, former Executive Director of NHPC; Prof ML Sharma of IIT Roorkee; Gulshan Raj; and Ashutosh Das, former Member Secretary of the Odisha Water Resources Department, who represents Keralam on the panel.
The team has arrived at Thekkady and proceeded to Vallakadavu for the on-site evaluation. The four-day exercise follows an underwater structural assessment conducted in December 2025 using a remotely operated vehicle.
Keralam’s presence during the evaluation will include James Wilson, Advisor to the Kerala Government on Interstate Water Disputes, and R Priyesh, Chief Engineer, Irrigation.
The expertise brought into the exercise is notable — dam safety, hydrology, structural engineering, flood management, and materials research — with several members having held senior positions in national and state-level water institutions.
But another detail stands out when the panel looks at Mullaperiyar: much of the expertise has travelled down from the North and East to inspect a dam in Kerala’s south.
With experts from NHPC, IIT Roorkee and Odisha dominating the panel, one might jokingly wonder whether Mullaperiyar’s safety inspection is also turning into a small north-to-south knowledge exchange.
After all, the dam may be in Keralam, but for this inspection, the experts seem to have come with a rather long journey behind them.
