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An expert committee report, exposing the irregularities in the construction of a major irrigation project during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime, has triggered a political slugfest in Telangana.

 

The Congress government, headed by A Revanth Reddy, had ordered a probe last year following damages to the Medigadda barrage, one of the components of the ambitious Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Godavari river in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.

 

A 378-page final report of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), which examined the issue, was submitted to the government recently. It slammed the previous government for the faulty design of the project and recommended redesigning of the original plan and relocation of the project site.

 

“Our cabinet will discuss the report and initiate an appropriate action plan to restore the project,” state irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

 

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The eight-member committee of NDSA, headed by former Central Water Commission chairman J Chandrasekhar Iyer, declared that the seventh block of the Medigadda barrage suffered irreversible damages due to sinking of piers from 16 to 21.

 

The committee said issues such as sand piping, cavity formation beneath the raft, construction flaws, and design deficiencies — already observed in the seventh block of the Medigadda barrage — could also affect other blocks.

 

It recommended that this block should not be used for gate operations again though it may either be safely decommissioned or removed without affecting adjacent blocks. The cavities beneath the raft of this block must be completely filled, the report stated.

 

“As this could alter the foundation conditions, a fresh structural analysis should be done and a suitable rehabilitation plan must be designed and implemented with the design preferably reviewed by the Central Water Commission,”  the report said.

 

The upstream barrages, Annaram and Sundilla, which exhibit similar design and construction flaws, have experienced structural distress and damage, rendering them unserviceable. “All three barrages require comprehensive investigation from multiple angles,” it said.

 

The NDSA committee found fault with the previous BRS government, stating that lack of a proper Operation and Maintenance (O&M) manual had adversely affected the functioning of hydro-mechanical components at the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages, contributing to their respective failures.

 

It said construction of all three barrages had begun while the Kaleshwaram project’s detailed project report (DPR) was still under appraisal by the Central Water Commission and other central agencies. The Irrigation department made substantial deviations from approved project parameters.

 

The NDSA report has given enough firepower to the ruling party to target the BRS. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the BRS leaders should hang their heads in shame for the faulty design of the barrage, which led to the collapse of the piers.

 

“The BRS is guilty. The ₹1 lakh crore project has collapsed under the weight of corruption,” the minister said.

 

However, the opposition BRS outrightly rejected the report, saying it was not NDSA’s report but that of the NDA.  Asserting that the entire report was politically motivated to tarnish the image of their party, the BRS working president and former minister KT Rama Rao said: “The report, which was ready by December 2024, was released just ahead of our party’s silver jubilee celebrations on 27 April, deliberately to discredit the party. It is an NDA's report and not an NDSA document,” he said.

 

The NDSA’s investigation has revealed alarming structural deficiencies in the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages, integral components of Telangana’s ambitious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

 

The report recommended immediate stabilisation measures to arrest ongoing distress, comprehensive geotechnical studies and advanced geophysical assessments to establish a reliable baseline for future interventions.

 

Hydraulic and structural designs, supported by appropriate model studies and mathematical modelling, are essential to ensure the long-term durability and safety of the barrages, the report pointed out.

 

The report stressed the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration among stakeholders, including the Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) Department, construction agencies and technical experts to ensure the project’s sustainability and resilience.

 

The NDSA report said that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, one of India’s largest irrigation initiatives, is designed to lift water from the Godavari River to irrigate millions of acres. Central to this project are the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages, which operate in a cascading system to lift water and finally transfer it to the Yellampally reservoir.

 

The barrages, approved by the Telangana government in March 2016, were constructed between 2016 and 2019, with contracts signed for their completion within 24 months. However, just a few years after their commissioning in 2019, all three structures have exhibited significant structural distress, prompting urgent scrutiny.

 

The NDSA began its investigation after receiving a request from the Secretary of the Telangana Irrigation Department on 13 February 2024. The NDSA, under the Dam Safety Act, 2021, constituted a high-level committee chaired by J Chandrashekhar Iyer, former Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC).

 

The committee, comprising experts from CWC, NDSA, Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS), Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, conducted site inspections in March 2024, held 36 internal meetings, and reviewed extensive records, designs, and drawings to produce its findings.

 

The committee’s site inspections revealed severe structural issues across the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages. The Medigadda Barrage, the first in the series, has suffered the most pronounced damage. Block 7 of the barrage has experienced significant settlement, with piers cracking and tilting due to the formation of large cavities beneath the raft foundation.