Repairs are the Priority, L&T Can't Wash its Hands Off: Uttam

Hyderabad: Larsen & Toubro, the company which built the Medigadda barrage, on Monday maintained that it was not at fault for the sinking of piers at Block 7 and that it had built the structure as per the design provided by the irrigation department.

Company executives, including its group director S.V. Desai, attended a meeting called by irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy at the Secretariat, which was also attended by top irrigation department officials, including engineer-in-chief Muralidhar.

The L&T representatives stated that the barrage faced higher water flows than it was designed to withstand, and that the fault most likely was in the design and not in their execution. They also said that they were issued a completion certificate by the irrigation department.

“It is not correct on part of L&T to wipe its hands off. While the responsibility for what happened will be fixed in the judicial inquiry, L&T was told that the project was given to it as it has a good track record, and was trusted to do its work, and it cannot just say it is not its problem,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

Speaking with Deccan Chronicle, the irrigation minister said he questioned both L&T and the irrigation officials on why the designs, prepared by the department and executed by L&T, were not vetted by a third party. “I am shocked at this fiasco. Almost two months after the piers sank and one of them developed major cracks, no serious inquiry has commenced from either side to establish the actual cause,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

The minister also instructed the company and irrigation department to immediately form a joint team to ascertain the fault in specific and submit a comprehensive report.

The entire Block 7 is in danger, as evidenced by a domino effect that led six pillars to sink after the first one sank on October 21, L&T and irrigation department officials agreed at the meeting.

The repairs are expected to cost between '500 crore and '600 crore, according to preliminary estimates, not including the '60 crore required to build a cofferdam around the damaged piers to undertake work on the ground.

While L&T executives did not commit to footing the repair bills, as the issue would have to be placed before the company’s board, the government remained firm that it cannot shirk from its responsibility and should take up repairs at its cost.

Sources in the irrigation department said issuing the completion certificate could become an issue. “The release and discharge certificate was not issued and the final payments have not been made. Until this happens, L&T cannot claim that the defect liability period is over from the date of issue of completion certificate. Such certificates are given to the executing agency on their request for quoting the experience of construction of a project when bids for similar projects elsewhere,” a source said.

Incidentally, L&T never claimed responsibility for the incident at Medigadda, except saying, in a release issued through its PR agency, that it was “committed to participate in the process of restoring the Block 7 of the barrage.”

The claim that L&T would foot the costs came from BRS leaders K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao.

All efforts to contact L&T for its views on the ongoing controversy, and its liability, failed to elicit a response.