Retaining wall of Sunkishala project at Nagarjuna Sagar collapses, no casualties

Hyderabad, Aug 8 (IANS) The retaining wall at the Sunkishala project at Nagarjuna Sagar in Telangana's Nalgonda district has collapsed. There were no casualties, said officials. 

The incident occurred on August 1 but the visuals of the same emerged on Thursday.

A big tragedy was averted as the wall collapsed during the shift change for the workers.

The retaining wall was constructed to prevent water from entering the tunnels. Following the incident, the Sunkishala pump house was flooded.

The Sunkishala project is being built to lift water from the dead storage of Nagarjuna Sagar for supply to Hyderabad for drinking water needs.

Hundreds of workers work on the project in three shifts. The retaining wall collapsed around 6 a.m. when the workers were yet to arrive at the site for the next shift.

The Sunkishala intake well project is a significant component of the Krishna Drinking Water Supply Project (KDWSP) and is aimed to address the long-term drinking water requirements of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration (HUA) areas until 2050.

Meanwhile, with the increase in inflows from upstream, all 26 crest gates of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) across Krishna River in Telangana have been lifted.

Officials of the irrigation department lifted the remaining four gates on Thursday to release the water downstream.

This came after a further increase in the flood flow from Srisailam and other upstream projects.

While 22 gates were lifted to 5 feet, the remaining four were lifted to 10 feet to release the surplus water.

The water level in NSP on Thursday morning was 585.30 feet against the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 590 feet.

The inflows into the reservoir were 2.53 lakh cusecs while 2.69 lakh cusecs were being released through the gates.

The NSP currently has storage of 298.30 TMC against its full capacity of 312.50 TMC.

Ten gates of NSP, one of the major dams in the country, were lifted on August 5. The next day authorities opened 12 more gates.

This is after a gap of two years that the gates of the project were opened.

Heavy rain in the catchment area and the massive inflows from upstream, brought to an end a year-long crop holiday and water scarcity in NSP’s vast ayacut comprising 18 lakh acres in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.