Four officials suspended over Sunkishala wall collapse

Hyderabad: Four engineering officials of the Hyderabad Water Board have been suspended from services for their negligence in the safe maintenance of the Sunkishala intake well project, where a retaining wall collapsed recently. The implementing agency of the project, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, has taken action against the erring officials based on the report submitted by the official committee.

The committee found technical lapses on the part of all the officers in charge of the Sunkishala project. The explanations given by the officials were also not satisfactory, and hence the government took disciplinary action against them. Water Board officials said that S Kiran Kumar, Chief General Manager (Engg), B Maria Raj, General Manager (Engg), N Prashant, Deputy General Manager (Engg), and KVP Harish, Manager (Engg) of Project Division-III, were suspended from the services.

The Water Board Director (Project-II) submitted a report on August 8 that the gate fixed to the middle tunnel along with the side wall collapsed on the morning of August 2. The incident happened due to the unexpected huge inflows into the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir. In the reservoir, backflows and upsurge action happened, and the reservoir's water gushed into the tunnel, due to which the tunnel gate along with the side wall collapsed and the intake well was filled with water. The government also ordered a high-level probe into the incident to determine the project's status.