Telangana Assembly Session May See sparks Fly on Barrage Fiasco

While the first three barrages of the Kaleshwaram project —Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla —all are reported to have developed cracks, the visibly worst damage has been at Medigadda with an entire block sinking partially.

This has led to the Medigadda barrage becoming inoperable raising serious questions on the utility of the Kaleshwaram project. This barrage was built by Larsen & Toubro, the engineering and construction major which had also built the Cyber Towers and the Metro Rail project in Hyderabad.

While Annaram and Sundilla barrages too have shown signs of damage in 2019, along with the time when Medigadda started showing signs of wear and tear, the then BRS government managed to keep the issue under wraps with strict access control to the barrages.

The BRS, which was in power when the Kaleshwaram project was built, has been silent on the Medigadda disaster and damage to the other two barrages.

With the issue expected to pick up fresh heat in the Assembly, the engineer-in-chief (ENC) (general) of the irrigation department is learnt to have to written to the Ramagundam unit to explain the issue of completion of work certificates to L&T.

The V&D inquiry had found, as reported in these columns earlier, that multiple such letters were issued to the construction company creating confusion over whether the project was officially completed or not, and if completed, the actual date of completion.

The V&E, as part of its investigations, pored through hundreds of documents, designs, collected samples from the Medigadda barrage, and is believed to have zeroed in on how systematic negligence, despite the knowledge that things were beginning to go seriously wrong, ended in the Medigadda disaster.

For now, the state government’s investigation was limited to Medigadda barrage’s partial collapse and the causes for it. It is expected that once it gets to the bottom of the Medigadda issue, the government will begin focusing on the Annaram and Sundilla barrages.

The Annaram barrage was built by Afcons Infrastructure, while the Sundilla barrage was built by Navayuga Engineering Company Limited.