The basement of a pillar of the bridge of Medigadda reservoir — a part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project — slightly sank on 21 Oct.
File picture of Medigadda barrage. (X)
After the basement of a pillar of Medigadda reservoir bridge sank slightly on the night of Saturday, 21 October, the Congress and the BJP have found a convenient weapon in it to attack the ruling BRS.
The reservoir is a part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) — the world’s largest such project — that is touted by the BRS as one of the biggest achievements of its decade-long rule..
Following the mishap, officials suspended vehicular traffic on the Medigadda bridge, also known as Lakshmi Barrage, between Telangana and Maharashtra. They are will have to find out the root cause of the damage after emptying the reservoir.
As soon as the news of the mishap spread, raising concerns over the safety of the barrage, situated in Jaishankar Bupalpally district, Congress MLA (Manthani) D Sridhar Babu rushed to the spot to take a look at the problem.
However, the police prevented him from getting anywhere near the project. After heated arguments with Babu, the police finally allowed him to visit the barrage alone.
Meanwhile, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy came down heavily on the BRS government for using the Kaleshwaram Project as one that “quenched the thirst of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s family” and not of Telangana’s parched lands.
He sought to ridicule KCR as to how the pillar of the barrage sunk when he described himself as the great engineer who had built the dam.
“KCR had let lakhs of crores of rupees go down the drain,” Revanth Reddy said.
Revanth Reddy demanded an inquiry to find out the cause of the sinking of the pillar and a safety audit by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). He wondered how the pillar sank even when there were no floods.
“The mishap exposed the weakness of the project,” he said.
Revanth Reddy also said that the Kaleshwaram Project has become a sort of ATM for the chief minister’s family.
“The government had organised buses for the people to visit the project which it described as one of the greatest wonders of the world,” he said.
He recalled how the government denied entry to the Congress leaders when the pump houses went under water during floods in Godavari. Revanth Reddy said the government should allow a joint team of BRS and Congress leaders to the project.
“If it does, we will tell them where the defects are and let them explain how it is one of the world’s greatest wonders. He urged the Union home minister, Governor and Election Commission to order an inquiry into the mishap at Medigadda.
He alleged that the BRS and the BJP had a tacit understanding and wondered if they would act rightly to reveal the truth behind the incident.
“If the Union government deputes a team of experts of the CVC, the truth will come out,” he said and demanded that the BJP should order an inquiry to prove that it was not in cohorts with the BRS.
In another development, BJP state president and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, in a post on X, described the mishap as an engineering blunder of KCR.
He said: “The failure & breakdown of KCR’s engineering blunder — Kaleswharam Project. The sinking of Kannepalli and Annaram pump houses during the floods and now the sinking of Medigadda barrage pillars into the water, serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of KCR’s failed administration.”
“This is what happens when you scout for — Project for Records. Project for Commissions, Project. for Corruption,” he added.
The failure & breakdown of KCR's engineering blunder – Kaleshwaram Project
The sinking of Kannepallai and Annaram pump houses during floods, and now the sinking of Medigadda barrage pillars in water, serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of KCR's failed administration &… pic.twitter.com/Aw0F1Qhh2r
— G Kishan Reddy (Modi Ka Parivar) (@kishanreddybjp) October 22, 2023
Later, speaking to reporters, Kishan Reddy said the state government had suffered losses after the heavy motors were submerged due to the Godavari river floods earlier. He added that the dam pillars sinking within three years after its launch was raising questions over its safety.
Taking strong exception to the police action preventing engineers and politicians from inspecting the dam, he criticised the State government for failing to respond to the issue till now.
The Union minister recalled earlier instances of engineers expressing doubts about the safety of the dam which has been constructed after spending thousands of crores of rupees.
“Today, the engineers’ suspicions became true,” Kishan Reddy said.
“KCR, who claimed to have read 80,000 books, donned the role of a super engineer and built the project without heeding the suggestions of engineering experts. At the same time, the estimates of the project have been increased significantly, and the wealth of the state was looted in the name of constructing the project,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the L&T authorities have responded to the issue and said that on Saturday evening, at one of the locations of block-7 of the barrage, the bridge portion, sagging was observed after a loud noise.
According to Mission Telangana’s post on X, the L&T authorities said that a technical expert team is deputed to the project site to assess the abrupt cause of the damages along with a state government team.
L&T authorities said they will take necessary action to rectify the damages on own upon technical assessment of the damages and find a solution at the earliest possible time.
The authorities said since the construction of the barrage in 2019, it has withstood floods in the last five flood seasons, including the recent 2023 season.
According to L&T, last year, this barrage experienced the highest recorded flood of 28.70 lakh cusecs against design discharge of 28.25 lakh cusecs. The barrage continued to operate safely and even withstood the unprecedented floods of July 2022.
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