ADILABAD: The Kadam irrigation project in Nirmal district again faced a flood-related threat, like last year. Four out of the 18 gates got stuck and could not be lifted on Friday to discharge excess water.
The gates 2,3,16 and 18 remained stuck in the morning when an attempt was made to lift them to release the water downstream, officials said, adding that the water level in the reservoir was in the safe zone by night.
People of the area and officials experienced anxious movements with heavy inflows into the project and four gates remained stuck, thereby slowing the excess water discharge from the reservoir.
The heavy inflows of floodwaters posed a threat to the Kadam project but the situation was reported safe by 8 pm. Officials were releasing 20,00 cusecs of water from each gate. The water level was at 688 feet by 8pm against 700 feet at 8am.
Last year, the counterweights of the two gates got removed with high floodwaters pressure from the cement pole and washed away. The counterweights work as a support to the process of downing or lifting the gates of the project.
The counterweights got removed and washed away in 1995 and 2018 following the heavy floods in the Kadam project.
The Kadam reservoir received heavy inflows from upstream and the water level reached 700 feet-level and touched the full capacity of 7tmc water. Some 1.55 lakh cusecs of water had been released downstream by lifting 14 out of the 18 gates, officials said tonight.
As many as 72 villages are facing floods in Nirmal and Mancherial districts. Water inflow was 31,000 cusecs by 8pm on Friday, against the 1.75 lakh cusecs at 8am.
The four got stuck due to technical snags as a result of improper repairs and the damage to them last year. The dead storage was at 675 feet level but the level by 8pm was at 688 feet. “The iron rope of the 18th gate got snapped when an attempt was made to lift it. Gates 2 and 3 were being operated with German technology while gates 16 and 18 with native technology.
The Kadam project was in a danger zone, it was stated earlier, and officials were not present in its catchment for fear that the dam may be washed away if the inflows continued with the same intensity.
Irrigation officials alerted the 25 villages downstream and asked them to shift to safer places. The people of 12 villages had started moving to safer places.
The Swapna Enterprises of Hyderabad has done repairs to the damaged crest gates, erected new iron ropes and made some welding work to set right the damaged gates. Some damaged parts were replaced with new ones last year.
The greasing works had also been completed and all the 18 gates were initially operated by the officials without any problem. However, in the recent floods, one gate did not function and remained stuck.
The state government would take up modernization works for the Kadem project based on a report from an expert committee that inspected the project and assessed the damage caused to the dam due to the heavy floods last year.
But, allegations are that no modernization work was done on the Kadam project though this had been proposed by the experts.
The state government allocated some funds in the state budget for repairs to the Kadam project in February. The fund was released in May. Works started in June and was going on for the last 45 days.
