AP ENC Narayana Reddy responds on technical issue at Pulichintala project, says no danger to Prakasam barrage

Andhra Pradesh: It is a known fact that a technical problem have arisen at Gate No. 16 of the Pulichintala project. Andhra Pradesh State Irrigation Chief Narayana Reddy responded to the incident. On this occasion, he said a technical problem arose during the lifting of the gates at 3:30 am. "When the main gutter broke, the support rope threads broke and the gate fell into the river; it all happened in a matter of seconds," he said.

The Engineer in Chief said that the gates are raised to let the floodwaters down from above and asserted that the entire gates were gradually lifted to reduce the pressure as water passed through a single gate. "It is untrue that the government and agencies do not care about barrage management," Narayana Reddy said.

He said they are checking the condition of the remaining girders and gates and made clear that there is no danger to the barrage. "The problem will be solved by tomorrow, " he said.

The crest gate of the Pulichintala project broken down in the wee hours of Thursday and as a result, the discharge of floodwater increased. The officials lifted 12 crest gates releasing 1.6lakh cases of floodwater from the reservoir. The minister for Irrigation Anil Kumar Yadav visited the Pulichintala Protect flood gates site and reviewed the situation on Thursday morning. He instructed the officials to make alternative arrangements to check the flow of floodwater.