Kakkad shutdown: KSEB to lose Rs. 25 lakhs a day

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 29. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is set to lose a minimum of Rs. 25 lakhs per day following the shutdown of the 50-mw Kakkad hydel power station due to a major leak in one of the Adit Tunnels leading to the main tunnel between the Moozhiyar dam and the hydel station.

Sources in the KSEB here say the repair work on the damaged tunnel could take nearly a week. This means the total loss to the Board on the power generation front alone may come up to Rs. 2 crores. The Kakkad project had cost the exchequer Rs. 151 crores.

In such hydel projects Adit Tunnels are built for easy evacuation of earth and rock from the construction site of the main tunnel and for facilitating easy movement of men and material.

The Adit Tunnel-5 which sprang a leak on Tuesday afternoon is the same one that cost the KSEB Rs. 15 lakhs when a leak was detected in it in July 1999, just two months prior to the commissioning of the Kakkad project in October 1999.

All the five Adit Tunnels leading to the Moozhiyar-Kakkad main tunnel were supposed to have been sealed using steel shutter gates, cement and concrete after the completion of the main tunnel.

The detection of the leak in July 1999 led to frantic attempts by the officials concerned to get the Adit Tunnel-5 ready for the scheduled commissioning of the Kakkad project in October. For this, a special epoxy-cement mixture was used to reinforce the sealing in Adit Tunnel-5.

According to KSEB sources, only gross shoddiness in applying the epoxy mixture or insufficient use of cement and concrete could have led to a leak in this tunnel now.

Although some KSEB engineers had asked that the project contractor be penalised for negligence, it was the Board itself that shelled out the Rs. 15 lakhs for repair work on the Adit Tunnel in 1999.

As the main shutters of the tunnel have now been shut at the Moozhiyar end to facilitate repair work, water was now overflowing from the Moozhiyar dam to the Pampa river.

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Section  : Southern States
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