HYDERABAD: Wednesday’s early morning 5.3 magnitude earthquake near Medaram village in Mulugu district of Telangana is believed to have not impacted the Medigadda barrage on Godavari river, with officials from the irrigation department, fearing possible repercussions, inspecting the barrage and pronouncing it safe from the quake’s impact.
The barrage located just 35 km from the quake epicentre, is already under stress from the partial sinking and cracking of one of the barrage’s blocks in October 2023.
A detailed inspection of all the blocks and piers of the barrage was taken up by engineers from the irrigation department, and from L&T PES-JV, the agency which built the barrage, did not uncover anything untoward, sources said.
Meanwhile, a former senior state irrigation department official with vast experience in operation and maintenance issues, said since the quake was not minor, all irrigation structures, be they dams, barrages, or bunds in the state should be thoroughly inspected as a matter of abundant caution.
Officials also said there was no cause for concern at the Mallannasagar reservoir — part of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) where the National Geophysical Research Institute had flagged the presence of a large fault zone, an issue that was also mentioned as a matter of safety concern by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the Kaleshwaram project.
“The fault is in a zero water zone, under a hillock, and this year for the first time, we stored 21.3 tmc ft of water at Mallannasagar, up from the highest 17 tmc ft earlier. There is no cause of concern over the reservoir’s safety from today’s quake,” a senior irrigation department official said.
