The National Dam Safety Authority has said that the barrage requires a complete overhaul after visiting the site and talking to relevant officials last week. It also claimed (in a letter to the Telangana chief secretary) that the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department failed to provide critical data and inputs required by the NDSA team. 

“There are deficiencies in the project planning and design as well. The barrage has been designed as a floating structure but constructed as a rigid structure. The contiguous secant pile type cut-offs adopted by the project authorities were taken up to rock both upstream and downstream of the barrage. This has changed the structure behaviour from the designed,” the NDSA said.

The missive also flagged ‘maintenance deficiency’ on the part of the dam owners that had progressively weakened the barrage and led to its failure.

The NDSA findings have now sparked a war of words with the K Chandrashekar Rao-led government claiming that the report was “politically motivated”. Senior party leader KT Rama Rao also questioned its timing mere weeks before the state polls. 

“This project made by the KCR government is sinking now. The future of this project is under question now. The money invested in it is wasted now. I demand a judicial inquiry into this,” said state BJP chief G Kishan Reddy.

Meanwhile Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the barrage on Thursday and inspected cracks that had developed in the pillars of the barrage. 

“Kaleshwaram Project = KCR Family ATM. I visited the Medigadda barrage, which is a part of the corruption-ridden Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme in Telangana,” Gandhi had said.

The barrage is part of the Kaleswaram project – touted as the world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Updated: 03 Nov 2023, 10:24 PM IST