Medigadda Barrage: What the experts said

The retired engineers and experts accompanied BRS leaders led by working president KT Rama Rao to the Medigadda and Annaram barrages and made a few suggestions

Hyderabad: Exposing the false campaign of the Congress on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, retired engineers and experts on Friday stressed that the sinking of the pillars at the Medigadda Barrage could be rectified and asserted that the sinking was not due any lapse in the design.

The retired engineers and experts accompanied Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders led by working president KT Rama Rao to the Medigadda and Annaram barrages and made a few suggestions.

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Former chairman of the Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation V Prakash Rao pointed out that Medigadda was just one component among many under the Kaleshwaram project.

“The Medigadda pillars could have sunk due to the heavy flood flow in July 2022 and not due to any other reasons,” Prakash Rao said, pointing out that if there were design lapses in the project as the Congress was trying to establish, then other pillars should also have sunk or suffered similar damage. All the three barrages, Medigadda, Sundilla and Annaram, together have 227 pillars, but only three pillars at Medigadda sunk. This again proves that it could have been due to the heavy floods in July last year. On a single day on July 15, 2022, 250 tmcft water flew downstream, he said.

“If BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao was the Chief Minister, he would have constructed a ring bund or cofferdam near Kanepally pumphouse to lift water towards Kondapochamma reservoir to supply water to farmers in Yasangi,” Prakash Rao said, also stating that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had misled the Assembly by reading out only one paragraph of the report by retired engineers on the Medigadda barrage in the past.

Retired engineer Venkatesham, who inspected the barrages, said the sinking of piers was rectifiable easily. Under the stop plug arrangement, if the Minimum Drawdown level was maintained at 93ft in the barrage against 100 ft, pumps could be operated, he said.

The government should protect the interests of farmers and save public properties. Four months have already passed and only three months were left for the monsoon to arrive. Repair works should be taken up immediately and by doing so, the Congress government would be complimented, he said.

Another retired engineer Damodar Reddy also inspected the barrages.