[rajeev k]

Last Sunday, on December 2, 2012 we went on a whirlwind tour to Idukki and Cheruthoni. For those who are not familiar with the State of Kerala, Idukki is the largest Hydel Power Generating Station in Kerala. For that matter Kerala State Electricity Board do not have any Thermal Power Station. I had been to the Idukki dam site during its constructing phase, as a college student.
But for a change we traveled in Buses this time, as this was a group trip from Office.
As planned the group started before day break and reached Thodupuzha around 0800 AM and had breakfast at a resort by the wayside about three KMs from the town. A fine place beside a river called by the same name from which the name of the town is derived.
Wikipedia says thus; 'thodu' (which means a small stream) and 'puzha' (which means a river). It is believed that the small stream developed into a river, and the town on the banks of the river came to be known as Thodupuzha.
We spent some time there enjoying the natural greenery around the Resort after a vegetarian breakfast of Bread Toast and Appam with stew.

We started the trip sleeping like a baby.



Views of the Resort.

[rajeev k]

Started and the climb to Idukki began immediately. Traveling in a bus with that common tourist bus style body is not at all conducive to enjoy the scenic panorama leave alone clicking.
See some interior pictures of the bus, claustrophobic ain't it?

[rajeev k]

We went straight to the SEB guest house at Idukki and after freshening up reached Cheruthoni dam at around 1130 hrs. Private vehicles are not permitted to traverse through the dam top. Permission of competent authority of the SEB is required for entering the dams which we had obtained earlier from the Board's office at Trivandrum and duly attested by the Executive Engineer at Idukki. As these were arranged two days ago we did not have any problem to get entry into the dam.
We walked first through the Cheruthoni dam and then through a road leading to the Idukki arch dam and can come out at the other end of the dam where our buses were waiting having reached there through an encircling public thoroughfare. We walked a total distance of around three kilometers.
Sorry, no pictures as Mobile phones and cameras were not allowed and we kept them in the room in the SEB guest house.
From there we proceeded to the bottom side of the Idukki dam.

The Guest House.

The view fro the Guest House area.

[rajeev k]

Had a late sumptuous lunch with fish curry and then proceeded to the Hill View Park, which is just across the Guest House. This park, maintained by the Idukki District tourism development committee has a view point from where the entire Idukki dam and the panoramic catchment area can be enjoyed. See for yourselves.
The entrance

The view from the park perched atop a hill was breathtaking. Photography is allowed in here and we could catch the entire reservoir and both the Idukki and Cheruthoni dams.












The low water level in the reservoir is quite alarming as the state is in for a massive power crunch. Usually in December the reservoirs used to be full to the hilt after the monsoon season. This year the Rain Gods were not kind to the state as rains were very scant. And this is the State's largest hydel power station with a capacity of 780 MW.

Returned to the Guest House around 0500pm and had tea with Banana Fritters, made famous by laluks in his recent travelogue. Started our way back by 0630pm. The return was eventful as the Leyland's clutch started fuming and had to virtually crawl when the roads were steep. Luckily for us it was on the return descending leg and reached back safe.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[thoma]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

and then proceeded to the Hill View Park, which is just across the Guest House. This park, maintained by the Idukki District tourism development committee has a view point from where the entire Idukki dam and the panoramic catchment area can be enjoyed.

Good view from the Hill View Park! The park was under construction when I visited the dam last Onam. But then they had provided boating facility on the waters. Isn't the dam open for visitors now? Usually, 2 times of the year, for holidays, the dam is open for visitors. Might be that is why you had to get prior permission. My wish is to visit the Moolamattam power station, down below, if possible. Do you know if we can get any special permission for that?

The low water level in the reservoir is quite alarming as the state is in for a massive power crunch. Usually in December the reservoirs used to be full to the hilt after the monsoon season. This year the Rain Gods were not kind to the state as rains were very scant.

True that both the SW and the NE monsoon were scanty this year. But seeing the picture, before reading the above, I presumed that the water was enough to see us through the next summer.

I guess you had not been to the bottom of the dam. If so, then that was a huge miss - to be covered by the humongous umbrella; to stand under such a huge column of water. Here is a splendid capture of the dam from the bottom, by benbsb29.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by thoma

My wish is to visit the Moolamattam power station, down below, if possible. Do you know if we can get any special permission for that?

We tried but we were not granted permission to the underground power house this time. I had visited earlier during my college days.

I guess you had not been to the bottom of the dam. If so, then that was a huge miss - to be covered by the humongous umbrella; to stand under such a huge column of water. Here is a splendid capture of the dam from the bottom, by benbsb29.

We too went there but as our cameras were away we could not click pictures. We kept our cameras and mobiles at the Guest house before proceeding on the Three KMs walk over the dams.

[rajeev k]

A bye bye to Idukki photo. Another view from the park.

[ampere]

Wow! The dam looks "damn" good ! Beautiful site to look at from the top.
I was just dreaming; on a clear day (with lesser haze) how it would look !

[rajeev k]

I am attaching some more pictures of Idukki taken by one of my friends in the group.