Ministers’ Team Visits Medigadda Barrage: TS govt mulls revival of Pranahita-Chevella

Medigadda: The Congress government will take up the construction and completion of irrigation projects as one of its main agenda and revive the ‘Jalayagnam’ scheme introduced during the regime of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in the undivided Andhra Pradesh state.

A team of five ministers, who visited the Medigadda project and made a power point presentation on the irregularities that took place there, told the media that the Congress government would revive the prestigious Pranahita-Chevella Lift Irrigation Project. This will be the alternative to the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme.

According to the ministers’ team, Kaleshwaram is a white elephant and would require huge funds to even meet the cost of power to operate the lifts. They said the Congress government would take up redesigning and construction of the existing projects.

Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) expert panel report reflects the reality and it had found fault in the design, construction and quality aspects of the project. Works for the third water lift would not be taken up until the irrigation officials submit a report.

Irrigation Engineer-in-Chief Muralidhar said the pillar/pier in Medigadda had sagged up to 1.256 m. The damage was still being ascertained. He said a Coffer Dam was being constructed at Medigadda. After this, it would be decided whether repair works should be taken up or it requires reconstruction.

The delegation of ministers also visited the pumphouses at Sundilla and Annaram where water leakage was found recently.

The team of ministers alleged that the previous government had escalated the project cost of Kaleshwaram from the original cost of Rs 86 lakh crore to staggering Rs 1.40 lakh crore.

So far, the government had spent Rs 1.27 lakh crore on the project. They said while the cost was escalated there were no quality control measures in place. Even feasibility study was not done scientifically and there have been several discrepancies in the engineering and construction aspects, the team said.

They said the Congress government would take up in-depth study on the new ayacut created and stabilisation of the ayacut, quality of the construction and the massive power required to pump the water from the project before deciding on utilisation of the project. They said, meanwhile, they would examine the possibility of taking up works on Pranahita Barrage after re-examining the proposal of head barrage at Tummidihatti.

Besides Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, the team of ministers included R&B Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, IT and Industry Minister D Sridhar Babu, Revenue Minister P Srinivas Reddy, BC Welfare Minister P Prabhakar.