Kerala gives nod to repair Mullaperiyar Dam road

Thiruvananthapuram: After much deliberation, state government decided to heed Tamil Nadu's request to reconstruct the road from Vallakkadavu to Mullaperiyar dam site in the Periyar Tiger Reserve, after it was washed away in the 2018 floods.
The government arrived at the decision after holding discussions with all stakeholder departments and agencies, including forests and wildlife, water resources, supervisory committee on Mullaperiyar dam under the central water commission (CWC) and the interstate water cell.As per water resources department's order last week, Tamil Nadu will bear the cost of reconstructing the road at Rs 31.24 lakh. The supervisory committee under the CWC, in its 16th meeting had decided to instruct Kerala to reconstruct the road, and it was conveyed to the government on April 20 this year. Subsequently, Kerala decided to agree to TN's request to reconstruct the road.
In January 2022, the executive engineer of Periyar dam special division of TN water resources department came up with the road reconstructing proposal, informing that TN was ready to bear the expenses. Tamil Nadu's request to Kerala said that the causeway in the ghat road from Vallakkadavu to Periyar dam was damaged during the 2018 floods in Periyar river, and it was not restored permanently. Only temporary measures were taken to restore the road by filling the damaged portions with sand bags and RCC Hume pipes in such a way that only light motor vehicles could use the road, that too very slowly, it said. The entire road was once again washed away in the 2021 floods, thereby disconnecting the dam site from Vallakkadavu and completely obstructing material transport to the dam site.
However, Kerala had been going slow on the request, considering the sensitivity of the matter. Senior water resources officials said that Tamil Nadu's repeated opening of the dam shutters was the main reason for the total damage of the road which was motorable till then.
On November 5, 2021, the forests and wildlife department's order permitting Tamil TN to fell 15 trees from the vicinity of Baby Dam at Mullaperiyar had created a stir. It had led to the suspension of a senior forest official, who issued the order, stating that these matters were of interstate importance and the order was issued without consultation at the ministerial level.