National Dam Safety Authority's Medigadda report unsubstantiated: Telangana govt

The State officials also stated that the reasons cited by NDSA for sinking of piers were not agreeable to them.

Telangana Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar (File photo | S Senbagapandiyan)

HYDERABAD: The State irrigation officials felt that the comments and suggestions of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on the Medigadda barrage were either unsubstantiated or made without a full appreciation of the facts. 

Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar on Saturday reviewed the report of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on Medigadda at Jala Soudha. All the issues raised by NDSA in the report were discussed elaborately and sent para-wise replies to NDSA. 

In his reply, Rajat Kumar said that the NDSA submitted the report in a hasty manner. The State officials also stated that the reasons cited by NDSA for the sinking of piers were not agreeable to them. 

Rajat Kumar pointed out in his reply that the Kaleshwaram project was approved by the Technical Advisory Committee of the Jal Shakti Ministry on June 6, 2018, after thoroughly examining all aspects like hydrology, costing, irrigation planning, environmental clearances, etc.

In particular, the design of the barrage was extensively studied by the Costing Directorate of the CWC with respect to functionality and costing. The then Chairman of the Central Water Commission, S Masood Hussain appreciated the Telangana government for the speedy execution of work and said that they had not seen any irrigation project of such magnitude and described the barrage as an “engineering marvel”. 

Meanwhile, Larsen & Toubro today reiterated their commitment to participate in the process of restoring Block 7 in the Lakshmi Bridge (Medigadda Barrage) that developed some settlement and cracks in a portion of Block 7 on  October 21, 2023.

The barrage was constructed by L&T Construction, as per the design provided by the authorities to the quality and standards, and handed over in 2019. The barrage has since been in operation having withstood the last five flood seasons.

The matter is under investigation and deliberation by competent authorities. L&T will take appropriate action to restore the damaged portion as soon as the competent authorities conclude on the remedial measures, a statement from L&T said.

IRRIGATION DEPT’S REBUTTAL TO CENTRE’S CONCLUSION 

The NDSA said only 11 out of the 20 documents were submitted by the State government. However, all the documents desired by the NDSA team were shown to the committee during the inspection and subsequent interactive meetings. Subsequently, we sent 17 documents to the committee through email on October 29. The remaining three documents were sent in November. However, without checking the details submitted by the SDSO a comprehensive indictment of the Kaleshwaram project was communicated to us in a hasty manner.

•  We are surprised that conclusions have been made about the causes of failure of Laxmi barrage without any investigative work by the committee. As you are aware that, the correct causes can be determined only after proper inspection of the foundation and other related structures, which are currently under water. Only once this investigative work is completed, we would be able to assess the correct reasons for the sinking of the piers in the barrage. As such at this point of time, we are unable to agree to your conclusions.
• The State Irrigation department also differed with the NDSA’ observation that primary reason for the failure is the settlement of the raft which could be due to various reasons including failure of the upstream secant piles due to barrage load.
•  Stringent quality control checks have been conducted while executing of the Secant piles and plinth connection between Raft and cutoff. 
• The need for revision of the apron design is already in the notice of the SDSO and field staff. Detailed modeling studies have been done jointly with IIT Hyderabad. 
•  We assure that all the provisions of Dam Safety Act 2021 are being scrupulously complied with. 
• The comments pertaining to Annaram and Sundilla barrages are unsubstantiated as the expert committee did not even visit the two barrages.