Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Monument planned for those who built Mettur dam

CHENNAI: A monument for people who worked to build the Mettur Dam would be unveiled at the dam site on its platinum jubilee next year, PWD Minister Durai Murugan said on Thursday. A function would also be held there. Replying to a debate on the demands for grants of his department, the Minister said this was on the lines of the one built at Aswan Dam in Egypt. The Mettur dam was built in 1934 and that time it was the first dam built straight across and had a mile-long span.

Since this was the PWD’s sesquicentennial year, a series of seminars, discussions and other events would be held across the State to mark the occasion. Landmark buildings constructed by the PWD would be illuminated from June 1 to 15, he said. Since the Department had begun shouldering huge responsibilities, he announced the bifurcation of the responsibilities of the Chief Engineer (Buildings).

There would be two CE (Buildings), one headquartered in Chennai and another in Madurai.

Earlier participating in the debate, R.T. Ganesan (AIADMK) said the Hogenakkal scheme was the dream of hundreds of people and needed to be implemented at an early date. Ram Prabhu (Congress) wanted the water release orders for irrigation made permanent in his constituency. V. Kaveri (PMK) urged the government to establish a separate department to deal with mining and sale of sand. P. Veldurai (Congress) wanted the government not to give permission to set up industries on agricultural lands. K.N. Sekharan (DMK) requested the PWD Minister to allow MLAs to suggest four tanks for desilting in their constituencies. D. Ravikumar (VCK) said only PWD works classified lower – Class 4 and Class 5 – were being given to scheduled caste contractors. He wanted the Minister to adopt the Madhya Pradesh model and give a small percentage of contract works to those belonging to SC and ST.

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