The vexed, elusive Mullaiperiyar Dam issue has been hogging headlines and both Tamilnadu and neighbouring Kerala have been wrangling over the row for some months now.

Under the circumstances, the row has gone to the next level, ever since there were allegations that the dam has suffered a leak. Yesterday, a team of senior engineers from Tamilnadu has said the dam was in a safe condition.

The team consisting of chief engineers and engineers of the Dam Safety Directorate inspected the dam on Tuesday and Friday in the wake of reports in certain sections of the media that the Kerala government had claimed that there were seepage in the dam. The team felt that the main dam, the baby dam were alright.

Divuling details of the dam, Principal Secretary of the Public Works Department S Ramasundaram yesterday shot off  letters to the Secretary of the Union Water Resources Ministry and the Additional Chief Secretary of the Kerala Water Resources Department, as also the Central Water Commission.

The findings of the engineers revealed that the leak was 58.46 litres per minute when the water was 135.1 feet, which was not over the permissible limits.

The bitumen provided in the construction joints in Blocks 17 and 18 had come out due to weathering over the years.

This would be repaired under regular maintenance [work] and there will not be any wetting/dampness in the dam thereafter. Moreover, this dampness had occurred only because of  the recent rains, the findings said.

Ramasundaram said the team had inspected the dam, the galleries, downstream of the dam and the spillways.