A team of experts from the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) led by former Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) J. Chandrashekhar Iyer has sought more information from the Irrigation department for recommending temporary measures for rehabilitation of Medigadda and two other barrages of the Kaleshwaram project before the onset of monsoon season.
According to the Irrigation department authorities, the additional information was sought by the team following their (department) request to make interim recommendations to prevent further damage to the structures during the monsoon/flood season. The NDSA team held extensive interactions with all stakeholders here for three days from March 20 after their initial meeting on March 6 and visit to the barrages on March 7 and 8.
During interactions with engineers and other officials of different wings such as investigation, design, construction, quality control, operation and maintenance of the Irrigation department, NDSA experts were said to have tried to elicit information on the change of location of barrages from the initially placed ones and whether the decision was taken after conducting necessary geological tests.
They sought to know from the department engineers — both in service and retired who were associated with the construction of three barrages of Kaleshwaram — on why they had built them as rigid structures after designing them as floating ones by laying more focus on design, operation and maintenance. They were said to have sought information on management of gates during floods, including operation schedule and the engineers responsible for different tasks.
Department engineers were learnt to have told the NDSA team that it was the department that designed Annaram and Sunidlla Barrages completely but due to paucity of time a construction agency’s help was taken in the case of Medigadda Barrage. The engineers were further questioned about using secant piles instead of sheet piles for construction of barrages and who had taken the decision to change it.
On being asked why they had failed to identify/detect leakages at Medigadda, the department engineers are understood to have told the NDSA team that inspection and proper maintenance works before and after every flood season could have averted the damage. The team was also told that the proposal for using secant piles instead of sheet piles for Medigadda was first mooted by the work agency following a study by NIT Warangal professors against the initial format.
Apart from engineers in service, NDSA experts collected information from retired engineers of Central Designs Organisation, two former Engineers-in-Chief C. Muralidhar and N. Venkateshwarlu and Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement Department Rajiv Ratan, work agencies, investigation agencies and others.
