A small portion of the bridge of the Lakshmi (Medigadda) barrage of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) in Telangana’s Jayashankar Bhupalpally district ‘caved in’ after pillar number 20 of Block 7 of the barrage had ‘partially sunk’ amid loud sound on Saturday night, raising suspicion of sabotage.
The incident led to the temporary closure of the bridge of the barrage across the Godavari river that links Telangana’s Mahadevpur mandal with Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, as a safety precaution. Following the incident, KLIP officials immediately swung into action and complained to the local police about the incident suspecting some foul play citing the ‘deafening sound’ that preceded it.
The Block 7 of the barrage is located close to the Maharashtra side, sources in the Irrigation department said. The stored water in the barrage was let out by opening around 22 of the total 85 gates of the barrage to facilitate the technical assessment of the exact cause and extent of damage.
The water level in the barrage decreased from 10 tmcft to 2.91 tmcft by Sunday evening, sources added.
Irrigation department sources said that it was preliminarily assessed that the basement of pillar number 22 of the barrage was slightly damaged and the repairs will be carried out by the construction company soon. The 1.6 km long barrage has 86 piers and its storage capacity is 16.17 tmcft.
L&T has built the barrage and it has also been entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining it for five years.
Officials said the extent of the damage could be ascertained only after the entire water was released from the barrage.
The repairs would take more than a month but the exact time can be revealed only after the damage to the pillars’ stability is seen.
The Medigadda barrage, which is the first barrage of the KLIP, was designed to withstand 28.25 lakh cusecs of flow and last year it withstood the highest recorded flood flow of 28 lakh cusecs.
