Hyderabad: The question of who will pay for the repairs to the Medigadda barrage, or for that matter for the work being done to test the extent of the damage and prepare the affected portions for full inspections by the National Dam Safety Authority, has once again raised its head.
The latest trigger was the February 17 release of over 2 tmc ft of water from Annaram barrage, that sprang a serious leak. L&T said the release of water laid to waste 15 days of work of building an approach road-cum-cofferdam to the damaged Block 7 and its adjacent blocks for clean-up works at the Medigadda barrage.
The company also made it clear that it was could not be held liable for the damages that occurred to the barrage in the recent past and that it reserved the rights to seek payments for the work being done by it.
It may be recalled that the previous BRS government had said after the discovery of the serious damage to Medigadda barrage in October 2023 that L&T which built the barrage would be responsible for all work related to repairs and restoration of the barrage, and the costs, claiming that L&T was bound by its ‘defect liability’ clause in the contract to do so.
But L&T has been claiming immunity from defect liability saying it was issued completion certificates by the then BRS government, and maintained that this period ended in June 2022.
When all this happened, the BRS government was led by the then Former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who also held the irrigation portfolio in his second term in office from 2019.
In a letter on February 10, the company told the irrigation department, “we reserve the rights under law to claim payments for work done,” according to sources.
In that letter, the sources said, L&T stated that its “contractual obligation” came to “an end in June 2022” and that it was assisting the irrigation department by conducting geo-technical investigations, but “the works are not done gratuitously.”
The company was learnt to have told the department that it was entitled to payment for all the additional works already executed and for works that needed to be done. It said this issue was raised several times with the irrigation department and urged it to “expedite the process of entering into a new contract to ensure speedy execution of access road/cofferdam, and geophysical investigation works.”
In another letter on February 18, the sources said, the company told the department that the release of water from the Annaram barrage late on February 17 had resulted in submergence and washing away of the approach road/temporary cofferdam, and also that the water bays in Block 6 and Block 7 at the Medigadda barrage were filled with water after they were already dewatered and dried.
The release of water from Annaram barrage, built by Afcons Infrastructure, was forced upon the irrigation department worried about possible impact on the barrage after it sprung a serious leak from under its foundations sometime on the night of January 16, the third such incident there.
L&T, in its February 18 letter, said that 16 gates at Annaram were lifted and more than 20,000 cusecs of water was released without any intimation to it. This resulted in halting crucial tests till water recedes, a new approach road is laid, and the area to be studied is dewatered again.
