History · Engineering · 6 min read

Pallivasal: Where Kerala's Electricity Began

In 1940, water diverted from the Muthirapuzha river near Munnar turned the turbines of Kerala's first hydroelectric power station. The story of Pallivasal, the dams that feed it, and how the hills of Munnar came to light up Kerala.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Below Munnar, on the road towards Adimali, the river valley drops steeply past Pallivasal and Chithirapuram. Here, great steel pipes plunge down the hillside to a power house, carrying water from the rivers of the High Range. This is the Pallivasal Hydroelectric Project, the first hydroelectric power station in Kerala, and the start of a system that made the hills of Idukki the powerhouse of the state.

A princely state's project

In the 1930s, the princely state of Travancore set out to develop electricity for its towns and industries. The steep fall of the rivers from the High Range offered an ideal source of hydroelectric power. Construction began in the 1930s; the engineers and contractors working on the project stayed in cottages built for them at the High Range Club in Munnar.

The first generating unit was inaugurated in March 1940 by the Dewan, Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer, and the second and third followed in 1941 and 1942. In 1944, a diversion dam, the R. A. Headworks, was built on the Muthirapuzha to channel water to the power station. The electricity from Pallivasal powered towns and the growing industries of the Travancore region.

The dams of the High Range

To keep the turbines running through the dry season, storage dams were built upstream: the Kundala dam, and later the Mattupetty dam, whose reservoirs are now among the most popular sights of Munnar. In a second phase, three larger turbines were added, raising the capacity to 37.5 MW. Swiss and British machinery was used. (Read about Mattupetty and our guide to boating on the reservoirs.)

Pallivasal was the first of many. The rivers of Idukki were later harnessed by the Sengulam, Panniar, Neriamangalam and above all the great Idukki project, whose arch dam between Kuravan Mala and Kurathi Mala was completed in the 1970s. Today the district produces a large share of Kerala's hydroelectric power. A long-planned extension scheme at Pallivasal was designed to make better use of the water from the High Range.

Pallivasal today

The power house at Chithirapuram is still working, more than eighty years after it began. The village of Pallivasal, with its tea estates, spice gardens and the Attukad waterfalls nearby, is a popular stop on the way to Munnar. The huge penstock pipes on the hillside are a reminder of the engineering history of the hills. (Read our history of Munnar.)