Tamil Nadu's government is set to put 86 dams and reservoirs,including key ones like Mettur,Bhavanisagar,Amaravathy, and Vaigai,through intense scrutiny. Independent expert panels will evaluate these within six months. It's all part of a push to comply with the National Dam Safety Act, 2021 — aiming to ensure these crucial water bodies hold up structurally .
19 dams will face detailed inspection. Safety, design,seismology,hydro mechanics,geology,hydrology, instrumentation — all under the microscope . Top brains like former Central Water Commission chairs J . Chandrashekhar Iyer and A.K. Bajaj lead. Others include ex-chiefs from Krishna River Management Board Yoginder Kumar Sharma, Shailesh Kumar Srivastava, and former Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department engineer R. Selvam. T.K. Sivarajan and R. Srinivasan are involved too. K. Muthukumaran from National Institute of Technology,Tiruchi, joins the effort.
Tamil Nadu approved these panels earlier this week . They’ll have support from superintending engineers acting as member-secretaries. Cholavaram,a key balancing reservoir for Chennai,is on list. The 86 dams were chosen as per their classification under the National Dam Safety Act.
Beyond these, 38 dams under Tamil Nadu Green Energy Corporation (TNGEC) like Pykara and Kadamparai also get assessed . TNGEC already has independent panels in place for its dams.
Meanwhile, National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has rolled out a safety system for four inter-State dams: Mullaperiyar,Parambikulam,Thunakadavu,Peruvaripallam. Tamil Nadu had opposed NDSA's oversight, claiming it owns,operates,maintains these structures. Kerala disputes this,as some dams sit there .
Deadline's December 30, 2026,to wrap up first thorough safety checks. This matches timeline set by the National Dam Safety Act. Of 123 dams under this law in Tamil Nadu,five are over a century old. 59 are 50-99 years,40 are 25-49 years, 19 under 25 years. Do these evaluations guarantee safety? Communities nearby hope so…
