Hyderabad: With just around two months to go before the scheduled onset of the monsoon season, the state irrigation department has called for a meeting on Wednesday with representatives of the companies that built the Kaleshwaram project barrages, it is learnt.
It may be recalled that all three barrages of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme have suffered as a consequence of lack of adequate maintenance, with the worst-hit being the one at Medigadda with a portion of it sinking, while the Annaram barrage sprang leaks and the Sundilla barrage requires urgent maintenance.
There are serious concerns over the safety of the structures, particularly with respect to flood protection measures such as the downstream apron areas that were first partly washed away during the 2019 floods in the Godavari and Pranahita, and were further damaged during the 2022 floods.
The washing away of the flood protection measures, including concrete blocks weighing a few tonnes, has been established as the primary cause for the washing away of sand from under the foundations of the barrage. This shifting of the sand, resulting in ‘piping’ of water from under the foundation was the worst at Medigadda which resulted in a portion of the barrage sinking.
The same process, at different degrees, resulted in leaks from under the Annaram and Sundilla barrages.
The three barrages currently do not store water following advice from the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA_ which recommended that the barrages be emptied. Officials fear that once the monsoon rains begin in June, the inflows into Godavari and Pranahita will make things very difficult at the barrages unless protection measures are taken up immediately.
This is expected to be a greater challenge than just discussions as the contracting companies — L&T which built Medigadda, Afcons which built Annaram, and Navayuga which built the Sundilla barrage —having informed the irrigation department that there was nothing much they could do unless the department steps up, provides revised and new designs for flood protection measures and construction parameters before any work can be taken up. The challenge is even greater at Medigadda, a part of which has already sunk.
There is also the issue of who will pay for the repairs with the state government insisting that the contractors do so, and the contractors claiming that they have been absolved of the responsibility for operations and maintenance works.
