Judicial Commission, NDSA may take more time to complete KLIS probe

The Judicial commission headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose started its work in May and made multiple visits to the project as part of the information gathering exercise.

Hyderabad: The Judicial Commission probing the construction of the three barrages that are part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) and the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) tasked with the investigation into structural issues of the key components of the project may require more time to complete their assignments.

Both the agencies, which were entrusted with simultaneous probe following reports that piers in block no-7 of the Medigadda barrage started sinking, are now halfway through their job.

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As per the timeline given to them, they were expected to complete their task by the end of June. As the two agencies were yet to get to the bottom of issues, they cannot be expected to deliver fruitful results in shorter time limits, said irrigation officials.

They added that the government would look into the issues pertaining to the timelines.

In fact, the time frame given for the judicial commission and the NDSA team may vary depending on the specific circumstances under which they are working.

The Judicial commission headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose started its work in May and made multiple visits to the project as part of the information gathering exercise. Justice Ghose had made it clear that the probe may need more time.

He has sought affidavits from all the engineers involved in the construction of the project barrages by June 25. He had interacted with the two of the former engineers-in-chief involved in the project construction C Muralidhar and N Venkateswarlu. He is taking information from every officer associated with the project construction since 2016.

On Tuesday, engineer -in-chief (O&M) Nagendra Rao and other key officials associated with the State Dam Safety Organisation furnished the information sought from them.

The commission has set up its panel of experts to assist in the investigation process. As directed by the Judicial Commission, the NDSA team had submitted an interim report recommending immediate works on the barrages.

So far as the NDSA probe is concerned, as desired by it, the services of experts from three central organisations – Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS), Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) and Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) have been drafted by the State government to conduct further studies on the barrages.

The NDSA’s final report would be based on the findings of the three agencies. As the ongoing studies they had taken up were likely to take more than three to four months, the NDSA team also may take more time to submit its report, officials said.