Substantial completion certificate for Medigadda: GO left no option but issue it: Official

HYDERABAD: A government order issued by the BRS government apparently left no option for officials but to sign on a substantial completion certificate for Medigadda barrage issued to L&T PES-JV, the Justice PC Ghose Commission of Inquiry probing the causes of problems at the Kaleshwaram project’s barrages, was informed on Saturday.

Answering a series of questions on the issue of a ‘substantial completion certificate’ to L&T PES-JV in 2019 which built the Medigadda barrage, the then superintending engineer of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme K. Sudhakar Reddy said that he had to countersign the certificate as per instructions in GO MS No. 94.

“There are no established procedures or instructions from the irrigation department for a methodology for issuing such a certificate,” Sudhakar Reddy said.

The official further informed the commission that no specific inspections were conducted before the certificate was issued as “a substantial part of the barrage was completed and was occupied by the (irrigation) department.”

He also said no specific documents or records were checked before he countersigned the certificate, which was signed by the then executive engineer B.V. Ramana Reddy. He also agreed that there was no list of the works that were completed at the time of issuing the certificate to the company.