Pillars of Lakshmi Barrage sink at Jayashankar Bhupalpally
Warangal: Pillars of the Medigadda Barrage, a key barrage under the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (Klis), reported started sinking, ringing the alarm bells in Jayashankar Bhupalpally on Saturday, following which traffic movement was stopped over the barrage.
Tirupathi Rao, an executive engineer of the irrigation department, said that pillars 15 to 20, from sixth to eighth blocks of the barrage had sunk, with sounds also emanating from the gates present at those blocks.
Tirupathi Rao said: “Since it is very dark and there is water in the barrage, it is not possible to estimate the extent of damage, which gates were damaged and at what level the danger would be. After inspecting the barrage in the morning, officials can estimate the situation and also decide on steps to prevent further damage.”
Officials attributed the issue to heavy water flow, of around 13 lakh cusecs, over the past fortnight. “Since the floodwater level at the Medigadda Barrage was recorded more than its capacity from the past two years, the pillars must have been sunk,” an official said.
The Medigadda or Lakshmi Barrage, as it is known, was the first barrage under Klis, connecting Telangana with Maharashtra, at Sironcha, with a total water storage capacity of 10.87 tmc ft. Currently, it has 10.1 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet).
The issue was first noticed by motorists, around 8 pm, who duly informed the irrigation department and the police.
Officials said that even last year, the inflow and outflow of water at Medigadda Barrage was recorded at around 15 lakh cusecs of water, which may have caused the gradual weakening of the structure.
The Lakshmi barrage has a total of 85 gates, of which officials were releasing 14,390 cusecs — the same as the inflow — through eight gates, as of Saturday morning.
After the pillars sank, officials lifted 40 gates in a bid to send all water downstream. They also issued a danger siren and alerted residents of nearby villages and places downstream.