Kaleshwaram project Useless unless fully rehabilitated-NDSA

Hyderabad: A central panel on dam safety on Friday ripped into the Telangana government on the issue of the sinking of pillars of the Medigadda (Lakshmi Barrage) which diverts rather than stores, water sank into the Godavari River last month.

The report said this incident had made the structure "Useless unless fully rehabilitiated". The barrage is part of the flagship programme of the state government costing Rs 80,000 crore and is touted to be the world’s largest lift irrigation scheme.

Chairman, of the National Dam Safety Authority, Sanjay Kumar Sibbal in his letter to the Telangana State Special Chief Secretary, Irrigation, Dr Rajat Kumar said that according to the Committee findings, piers had sunk due to a combination of issues involving planning, design, quality control and Operation and maintenance (0&M).

The primary reason for the failure is the settlement of the barrage raft. The piers, being monolith with it, have also settled, moved and cracked. This could occur due to several reasons, viz. piping, wherein transportation of foundation material has occurred; inadequate bearing capacity of foundation material (sand), failure of upstream secant piles due to barrage load. There appears to be construction deficiency due to a lack of stringent quality control during the construction of sub-surface contiguous secant piles and plinth connection between the raft and cut-offs, it said.

The 43-page report further said that the gaps might have been created in the scant pile formation, making the barrier permeable, leading to piping and subsequent progressive failure. There are deficiencies in the project planning & design as well.

However, Minister K T Rama Rao reacted saying that the report was politically motivated and questioned its timing; it comes weeks before an Assembly poll.

"Every single irrigation project in India, including Kaleswaram, is eventually vetted by the CWC... only after they approve all specs is it given clearance... while construction and later, a CWC team called it an 'engineering marvel' and we got an award in the United States too..." he said.

On the other hand the TPCC has asked the President of India to order a CBI probe into the sinking of the pillars of the project. Congress has been alleging that large scale corruption of about Rs one lakh cr had taken place in the project.