HYDERABAD: The expert committee of National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on Friday grilled the state dam safety officials about the steps taken to protect the barrages of Kaleshwaram as per the Dam Safety Act.
On the final day of its three-day visit to the state, the NDSA team reportedly asked the irrigation officials if proper enquiry was conducted into the damages or leakages at the barrages and if not, the reasons behind their failure to do so.
The team also asked the officials to submit more information for further studies to reach a final conclusion on the barrages.
The irrigation officials, on their part, proposed that all the gates of three barrages — Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla — should be opened during flood season to avoid further damages.
The team, which was led by Chandrasekhar Iyer, also interacted with Vigilance and Enforcement Director-General Rajiv Ratan and discussed in detail the vigilance report on Medigadda. Before leaving for Delhi, the team also inspected the models of the barrages kept at the Engineering Research Laboratory at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Though the timeline for the expert team to submit its report to the NDSA was four months, the state government requested it to submit the preliminary report within a month.
The state government would decide the future course of action once the NDSA submitted its recommendations based on the expert committee’s report.
However, Chandrasekhar Iyer felt that there was a need for an in-depth study and they had to check other documents too, to come to a conclusion on Kaleshwaram. He said that they sought some more information from the state officials and only then they would get further clarity.
State officials suggest tentative measures
Meanwhile, the irrigation officials submitted a list of tentative measures to be taken to protect the barrages from further damage in future floods, to the expert committee.
The officials suggested that all the operation and maintenance (O&M) works should be taken up as per the relevant IS codes by the existing agencies to restore the entire structure of Medigadda to its original design condition. This should be done by restoring the upstream (US) and downstream (DS) protection works as per the approved drawings, they said.
The other measures include exploring suitable methods for filling voids below the raft with sand by pressure grouting in all blocks and in all barrages. There was a need to reprogramme block-wise gate operations in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and conduct curtain grouting with bentonite cement in the flow direction on US and DS piles.
The officials suggested construction of regulators at suitable locations at a higher level in river banks to discharge lean flows, commercial disposal of sand on US and DS barrages up to riverbed level strictly as directed by the irrigation department, opening the jammed gates of block seven of Medigadda barrage by removing the gate seals of the barrage after ensuring raft consolidation and lay an additional row of steel sheet piles at block seven of the Medigadda barrage.
Govt decides to remove accumulated sand
Meanwhile, the government has decided to remove the accumulated sand near Annaram and Medigadda barrages. The government reportedly wanted the State Mineral Development Corporation to remove the accumulated sand. According to sources, the sand accumulated at Annaram barrage was nine lakh tonnes and it was around 36 lakh tonnes at Medigadda barrage.
Brijesh Kumar Tribunal given 16 more months to submit report
The Union government issued a gazette notification extending time for the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal by 16 months to submit its report. The tribunal is currently looking to the provisions of Section 89 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 and also fresh terms of reference issued by the Centre under Section 3 of Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956. The Centre wanted the tribunal to give its report by July 31, 2025. The earlier deadline given to the tribunal would expire on March 31, 2024. The tribunal would start next hearing on April 8.