hyderabad
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As the Congress government gets ready to table a White Paper in the Assembly on the alleged corruption by BRS government in the execution of Kaleshwaram project, following filing of a preliminary report by the Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) department on multiple damages on the Medigadda barrage, a blame game seems to be on the anvil.
The ongoing V&E probe has held the contract agency L&T squarely responsible for the failure of the structure, constructed at ₹4,613 crore, in less than five years of its inauguration, with some blame on the Irrigation department and a veiled blame on the decision-makers at the highest level in the previous government.
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New twist
With the V&E preliminary findings making it to the headlines, sources in the contract agency spilled the beans as to what transpired from the beginning, giving a new twist to the issue. The sources stated that their site engineers had noticed damages in the downstream apron, washing away of cement-concrete blocks and wearing coat immediately after the first flood season on November 21, 2019.
A cement-concrete block washed away from the apron area of Medigadda Barrage due to high shooting velocity of water | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The matter along with similar damages noticed in the downstream of Annaram and Sundilla barrages, in the upstream of Medigadda, was taken to the notice of the Irrigation department immediately so that remedial work could be taken up.
Experts from the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune, along with Irrigation department engineers, including those form the Central Designs Organisation, examined the damages in January 2020. TS Engineering Research Laboratories and the CDO were told to re-conduct the model studies with options for reducing the discharge or shooting velocity of water in February 2020.
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Against the shooting velocity of 5-6 metre per second from the barrage as per the design, based on which the construction was taken up, the velocity recorded was 20-22 metre per second. The barrage was also not emptied, which is required to examine the flood impact abutting the structure in the water holding area, even once after its inauguration in June 2019 till the piers’ damage occurred in October last, the sources explained.
Stating that theirs was item-rate contract against the design-build method in the EPC, the sources attributed planning, design, quality control and maintenance failures on October 21 last. They also reasoned the construction of a series of barrages for the increase in discharge velocity of water. In spite of their repeated reminders on the damages noticed after the first flood season, they did not receive any response till date.
Spokesperson of the L&T Vinod J. Chacko said that in spite of their official reminders about the initial damage, they were yet to receive any response from the Irrigation department till date. The company would take appropriate action to restore the damaged portion as soon as the remedial measures were suggested.