HYDERABAD: Top Vigilance officials have told TNIE that only a thorough assessment of the substrata of sand below the Medigadda barrage can reveal the actual extent of the damage to it.
The National Dam Safety Authority will assess the level of sand erosion and check how much of the barrage is free-standing. The NDSA report will reveal if the barrage is stable enough and fit for use.
Doubts about the stability of the barrage grew stronger after images of huge cracks, rusted steel, sunken reservoir bed and water seeping from the piers in the Medigadda barrage were made public following the recent visit by a delegation of legislators, led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
“If there is a gradual sinking of the piers, then it is still manageable. We can control the dam and open/close gates to manage the water level,” Director General (Vigilance) Rajiv Ratan told TNIE. “God forbid if there is a big hollow under the raft and the raft breaks, then there is a possibility of heavy floods downstream.”
Echoing Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy’s recent statement, Ratan cautioned that going forward, it is the experts (NDSA) who have to take a call. Uttam had said that Kaleshwaram in its entirety was non-operational, and despite at least Rs 10,000 crore being spent every year, the government was unable to utilise even a single drop of water from the project.
Noting that Sundilla and Annaram, the other two barrages, have some visible erosion of CC blocks, Ratan said: “The damage is progressive. The other barrages were also built with an identical design. CC blocks control the flow of water. But if they are not maintained and are standing on a hollow space and without any support, then they are also likely to sink in a similar manner.”
However, only the substrata report can dictate the next course of action, Rajiv Ratan said. The officer admitted that the preliminary report submitted by the Vigilance team does not have any earth-shattering observation that was not already made by the NDSA. In his words: “This is more of a damage report.”
While the causes of failure are many, the most glaring cause is the abandonment of the barrage. “Abandonment is nothing but non-maintenance,” Ratan clarified. “Imagine you get a brand new car and you do not maintain it for five years,” the V&E DG said, explaining that the damage in the barrage is a large-scale version of such a level of non-maintenance.
Most of this comes down to the engineer-in-chief, who Ratan said, was “not very diligent in his work”. The DG added, “He was issuing a lot of certificates in favour of the executing agency.”
The V&E DG also suspected that the Irrigation department was focusing on cover-up. The officer added that the team was yet to completely inspect the other barrages, after which they will make a full comparison with Sriram Sagar and other projects.