Hyderabad: The irrigation department has decided to cancel the controversial ‘completion certificate’ it issued to Larsen & Toubro-PES joint venture which was contracted to build the Medigadda barrage.
The move was initiated by irrigation secretary Rahul Bojja, who in a memo on September 4 wrote to the irrigation department’s ENC (general) Anil Kumar to take “necessary action to cancel illegal completion certificate,” to L&T-PES JV, following which the ENC wrote on September 6 to the chief engineer at Ramagundam to take “necessary action” and to “report compliance for onward submission to the government at the earliest.”
The new development could see a fresh round of acrimony or possible legal tussles between the government and the contracting agency, with possible political fights between the Congress and the BRS over who gave the completion certificate and when, and why it was given.
The certificate has been at the heart of a running argument between the company and the government ever since portion of the Medigadda barrage sank in October 2023. The company said the completion certificate absolved it of the developments at the barrage whose Block 7 saw subsidence, even as leaks sprang from under the foundations of the barrage.
The certificate was issued to L&T-PES JV in March 2021, which meant its two-year defect and liability period ended in March 2023, months before the barrage experienced distress. When the certificate was issued by irrigation officials, the company received freedom to unfreeze its bank guarantees.
Sources said that the latest move by the government could be part of a government strategy to force the issue and bring to the fore the possible role of then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao in the entire episode.
“The agency reported damages to the apron and flood dissipation areas of the barrage after the 2020 flood season but no action was initiated by the then government or the irrigation department to have the company rectify the problems. But, in 2021, it got the completion certificate and this could not have happened without someone from the very top exerting pressure on the executive engineer and the chief engineer of the project to do so. This could be at one level, force L&T to own up on all repair costs going forward, and at another, try to expose the complicity of the BRS leaders in the entire Medigadda episode,” the sources said.
