Guntur : Pulichintala crest gate breaks, gets washed away
Floodwater gushes out at the broken crest gate No 16 at Pulichintala project on Thursday
Guntur : One of the hydraulic-operated crest gates of Dr K L Rao Sagar multi-purpose irrigation project known as Pulichintala project on River Krishna got broken and washed away in the early hours of Thursday.
The incident took place when the engineering officials of the project were trying to lift the crest gates to release floodwater downstream at 3.30 am. When they tried to lift the crest gates, gate No 16 got broken and was washed away in the swirling floodwater immediately.
The officials started repairs to the crest gate at the project site which is likely to take at least 25 hours. The project's engineering officials lifted seven crest gates of the project releasing over 4.5-lakh cusecs of floodwater downstream to Prakasam barrage. Discharge of floodwater is likely to increase further to restore the broken gate.
Irrigation minister P Anil Kumar Yadav rushed to the project site on learning of the incident and reviewed the situation.
Speaking to the media, the minister said reasons for washing away of crest gate No 16 are yet to be known. He said an experts' committee will be set up to go into the reasons behind the breaking down of the floodgate.
He added that steps have been taken to repair the gate within 24-hours. He said he has alerted the officials in the backdrop of heavy inflows into the project. He said technical experts from Polavaram project will visit the Pulichintala project to take stock of the situation.
Pulichintala project superintendent engineer J Ramesh Babu said the breaking of crest gate and its washing away happened in a span of a few seconds. "When the engineering officials tried to lift the crest gates in the early hours of Thursday, bolt of the crest gate No 16 got broken and crest gate came off and washed away.
All this happened in a few seconds. Technical experts from Polavaram Project will examine the condition of all the crest gates of the project. They will make suggestions on fortification measures," he said. In order to restore the crest gate, floodwater should recede and all steps have been taken to carry out repairs, he added.