Medigadda back in focus with river flow study
The barrage was originally designed to withstand water flow speeds of up to 6 metres per second, but initial measurements on Wednesday recorded speeds of around 1.5 metres per second
HYDERABAD: The Medigadda barrage came back into focus on Thursday as a team of experts from the Central Water and Power Research Institute (CWPRS), Pune, arrived at the site to study the Godavari river’s flow near the barrage.
The CWPRS team, expected to remain at the site for the next two days, is conducting Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) studies to measure the speed and direction of water flow, as requested by the Irrigation and Command Area Development department. “These measurements are part of a series aimed at determining the requirements for finalising repair or rehabilitation plans for the barrage,” sources said.
The ADCP, which operates like sonar, uses the Doppler effect of sound waves generated by the equipment to accurately measure water speed and direction, the sources explained.
The barrage was originally designed to withstand water flow speeds of up to 6 metres per second, but initial measurements on Wednesday recorded speeds of around 1.5 metres per second. However, this rate depends on the volume of water flowing through the river, and currently, Medigadda is experiencing around three lakh cusecs, significantly lower than the nearly 20 lakh cusecs it faced at the peak of the 2019 floods, when issues at the barrage first began to emerge.
The ADCP study will take measurements 1 km upstream and 1 km downstream of the barrage. These measurements are expected to provide insights into how the barrage, currently in a free-flow condition with all its gates open, behaves at different water speeds. It should be noted that the state government is awaiting a final report from the National Dam Safety Authority before proceeding with final designs and drawings for the repairs and rehabilitation of the Medigadda barrage.