Irrigation Officials Urge Telangana Govt to Seek IIT Roorkee Expertise for Kaleshwaram Barrages
HYDERABAD: Serious questions have been raised from within the irrigation department over the competence levels of its Central Designs Organisation (CDO), the department’s independent division, which provided designs that were used for the construction of the three barrages of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) at Sundilla, Annaram, and Medigadda — all of which are now in dire need of permanent repairs.
Irrigation officials are urging the department to seek the state government’s permission to approach IIT Roorkee, and Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune, to provide designs for permanent solutions to the problems at Kaleshwaram project’s stricken barrages.
It is learnt that last week, the engineer-in-chief (general) of the irrigation and command area development department was urged in two separate letters by the field office in Ramagundam to apprise the government of the urgency in obtaining designs for permanent repairs at the barrages — for Medigadda from the IIT- Roorkee, and for Sundilla and Annaram from the CWPRS.
These institutions had carried out studies – to the extent possible – before the technical evaluations had to be stopped with water rising in Godavari river following the onset of monsoon.
In a clear message that the CDO could not be relied upon to provide corrections in its own designs, the ENC (G) was reminded of how the then chief engineer of CDO had last December expressed “inability” to provide fresh designs and drawings.
In two letters that month, following the cracking up of Block 7 of the Medigadda barrage and its partial sinking and discovery of serious leaks from under the foundations of the other two barrages in October 2023, the CDO had said that if “optimal results” were sought, then designs and drawings for permanent repairs should be sought from other reputed national agencies.
The Ramagundam field office also said that with the need to complete permanent barrage protection works before the start of the 2024-25 Kharif crop season for which lifting of water from the barrages would be required, there was an “imminent” need to obtain designs and drawings of all the protection works.
The letters said that while the National Dam Safety Authority’s final report was due, it would be prudent to get designs from the two research institutions to save time, and those designs can then be vetted by the CDO of the irrigation department.