NDSA team expresses dismay over non-cooperation from some engineers

The experts likely to meet a few engineers again before chalking out next course of action

The six-member experts team of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) led by former Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) J. Chandrashekhar Iyer has expressed dismay over the attitude of non-cooperation in sharing the required information by some of the engineers and officials, including those who retired from service, of the Kaleshwaram project.

After making a preliminary inspection and study of the sinking of piers in Medigadda Barrage and other damages such as washing away/displacement of cement-concrete blocks in the apron area, seepage and leakage of water in Annaram and Sundilla Barrages along with Medigadda on March 7 and 8, the team returned to Hyderabad and held a meeting.

All stakeholders involved in the investigation, hydrology, model studies, designs, construction, quality control and operation and maintenance of the three barrages since 2016 including those in service, transferred and retired were summoned for the meeting with the Engineer-in-Chief (General) G. Anil Kumar issuing an office memo on March 6 itself. However, sources stated that his predecessor C. Muralidhar and a few others skipped the meeting.

In their effort to ascertain the details of the three barrages chronologically, Mr. Iyer was understood to have expressed disappointment over the non-cooperative attitude in sharing complete information, including blaming others. Further, the team discussed temporary rehabilitation measures for the three barrages keeping in view the coming flood season. They also held separate meeting with engineers who were engaged in the execution of barrages.

Earlier, they had separate meetings with Secretary (Irrigation) Rahul Bojja and all the ENCs of the Irrigation department. They had separate meetings with different departments within the Irrigation department such as designs, hydrology, operations, maintenance and others and collected information from the representatives of the work agencies of the barrages too. However, the panel is likely to meet designs, O&M engineers and a few others again to collect more information.

After returning to Delhi/Pune, the experts’ team is likely to decide on the next course of action for a technical investigation into the failure of Medigadda and problems and the other two barrages. The technical investigation involves sub-surface geological and geophysical tests to ascertain the exact cause of failure of the barrages. Based on the outcome, they would design a rehabilitation model.