NDSA final report on Medigadda may take more time
The Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS), one of the three agencies whose services were drafted for this purpose, is yet to reach Medigadda barrage.
Hyderabad: The final report on the multi-disciplinary investigation taken up by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) into the structural issues of Medigadda and two other barrages of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, cannot be expected any time before December.
Its recommendations for the full scale rehabilitation of the project were expected within three to four months when it was tasked with the investigation. But as these recommendations are to be correlated with the findings of the ongoing studies entrusted to three other central organisations, the process is likely to take more time. One of the three organisations, which were entrusted with the fresh studies on the three barrages, has just started its job.
The Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS), one of the three agencies whose services were drafted for this purpose, is yet to reach Medigadda barrage. Reports on their studies cannot be expected before September next.
The NDSA expert team was tasked with the sub-surface study of Medigadda barrage in March. A pair of piers that were found to have drifted from their ordinal location on October 21 last year resulted in opening up huge cracks in the structure. Some seepage issues were spotted in Annaram and Sundilla barrages. Such issues have to be addressed only on the basis of indepth studies.
The NDSA submitted the interim report responding to the directions given by the Judicial commission investigating the Medigadda issue as a parallel exercise. Even that report is not of much help for the department, officials said.
Precious work time was also lost in the process. Now that the inflows into the barrages were in the rise, there is hardly any scope to continue the works in the riverbed.
The three barrages were emptied in March to facilitate the investigations. But all three barrages to receive heavy inflows in the next one week to ten days. Major part of the interim work was yet to be completed.
The lifting of the all the gates of barrage at Medigadda were being carried out taking all precautionary measures after completion of the pressure grouting process. One the 85 gates, in respect of which, issues continued to persist ,was totally removed.
