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dam-l Earth Times on Tehri



>                                          Controversial Indian dam
>                                          project cracks under
>                                          national pressure
>                                            By A.T. DUDANI
>                                          (c) Earth Times News Service
>
>
>       NEW DELHI--The controversial Tehri dam hydroelectric project, under
>construction for 20
>       years, has run into further trouble with cracks developing in the
>control gate shaft area
>       following rains. While officials dismiss the problem as mere peeling
>plaster, there is evidence
>to suggest that portions of earth between the main dam and the coffer dam
>have sunk.
>
>At the moment,however, there is no danger to the safety of the main dam. A
>team of Russian experts
>has examined the damage and recommended remedial action, though there are
>fears that repairs cannot
>be carried before the onset of the monsoon.
>
>Meanwhile the government is sitting on the recently submitted report of
>another review committee
>formed to study the safety of the dam and its environmental and other
>aspects. The government has
>made clear its intentions to go ahead with the construction come what may.
>Recently P.R.
>Kumaramangalam, Union Minister for Power, reacted furiously to suggestion
>that environmentalist
>Sunderlal Bahuguna would go on an indefinite fast to force the government
>to reexamine the logic of
>continuing building in what is acknowledged to be a seismic zone. Said
>Kumaramangalam, " If he does
>it, I will go to Tehri and sit on fast. I have been a trade unionist and
>led many a protest."
>
>This indicates that there will be no easy resolution to the crisis over the
>dam. When it was first
>sanctioned in 1972, it was expected to cost $1.9 billion. Today it is
>estimated to cost $5.5 billion. The
>government has to bear the lion's share of the blame for this. It rushed
>into the project without
>examining all the environmental and site safety aspects. It has also been
>extremely tardy on
>rehabilitation of the people whose homes were displaced by the project. In
>the cases where
>compensation has been awarded, the displaced persons have been given arid
>and unproductive lands.
>
>Environmentalists whom the government accuses of being inherently anti
>development contend that
>they are not opposed to the dam per se; they are only opposed to the
>secretive manner in which the
>government is trying to cover up rather than correct the design and other
>flaws in it. The attempt to
>gloss over the cracks which have appeared now, they say, are an example of
>this.
>
>Comments about this story.
>
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