NDSA faults design, construction of Medigadda barrage of Kaleshwaram 

Hyderabad, Nov 3 (IANS) The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has said that the piers of Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage sunk due to a combination of issues involving planning, design, quality control and operation and maintenance.  

The barrage is a part of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project across Godavari River in Telangana. A committee of NDSA has submitted its report after conducting a probe as ordered by the Jal Shakti Ministry and the report has come amid allegations by the opposition parties of massive corruption in Kaleshwaram, touted as the world's biggest lift irrigation project. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had visited the barrage on Thursday and alleged that Chief Minister KCR and his family plundered Rs 1 lakh crore of public money. 

A six-member committee led by member (disaster & resilience) NDSA had visited Telangana from October 23 to 25 to examine the reasons for the sinking of the piers of the Medigadda barrage. 

Sanjay Kumar Sibal, Chairman, NDSA wrote to Rajat Kumar, Special Chief Secretary, Irrigation and Command Area Development Department, Telangana, that though the committee sought a list of 20 data/inputs to examine the matter, only 11 items were submitted by Irrigation & CAD Department. 

It is construed that the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department has nothing to submit about instrumentation data, pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspection reports, completion reports, quality control reports, condition of gates and many other inputs, he wrote.

As per the committee, the primary reason for the failure in settlement of the barrage raft. 

The piers, being monolith with it, have also settled, moved and cracked. 

This could occur due to several possible 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, etc. 

There appears to be construction deficiency due to lack of stringent quality control during the construction of sub-surface contiguous secant piles and plinth connection between the raft and cut-offs, says the report. 

It also mentioned that there are deficiencies in the project planning and design as well. 

The barrage has been designed as a floating structure but constructed as a rigid structure. 

The dam owner is supposed to undertake sounding and probing in the apron area every year immediately after the monsoon to assess the scours and launching of aprons in the vicinity of structures. 

The report also states that NDSA has regularly asked the Telangana State Dam Safety Organistaion to get done the pre and post-monsoon inspections to check for any unusual behaviour or signs of distress. 

But it appears that this has not been complied with. This is a significant omission, thus attracting provisions of section 41 (b) of Chapter X of the Dam Safety Act, 2021. 

There appear to be many areas where compliance with DSA 2021 provisions was found missing. 

This is a serious matter as the barrage has a high risk potential for life and economy. The distress condition developed in one block of the Medigadda barrage is adversely affecting the functionality of the barrage. 

The barrage under the present condition is rendered useless until fully rehabilitated. 

The report also says that the two barrages constructed upstream of Medigadda under the Kaleshwaram project, viz; Annaram and Sundila barrages, have similar designs and construction methodologies, making them prone to similar failure modes. 

Signs of boiling already exist downstream of Annaram barrage, a precursor to failure. These barrages also should be examined urgently for signs of piping/distress. 

The report has given further ammunition to the opposition parties to step up their attack on the KCR-led government over Kaleshwaram. 

Both the Congress and BJP had termed the project a major scam. 

"Exposed! K Chandrashekar Rao led Telangana government's corruption stands hopelessly exposed," posted Union Minister of Jal Shakti on 'X' while reacting to the report of the NDSA committee. 

"It is appalling to know that the greed & corruption of the BRS govt has led to risking lives of lakhs of people & loss of crores of rupees of tax payers' money," he said.

--IANS 

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