NDSA findings on Medigadda unsubstantiated: Telangana writes to Centre

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the NDSA report, Rajat Kumar dashed off a letter to NDSA chairman Sanjay Kumar Sibal terming the report that was communicated to the State government in a hasty manner "an indictment of the Kaleshwaram project".

Hyderabad: Telangana Special Chief Secretary ( Irrigation) Rajat Kumar on Saturday said many of the findings in respect of the reported sinking of the Medigadda barrage piers made by a six-member committee of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) were either unsubstantiated or made without a full appreciation of the facts.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the NDSA report, Rajat Kumar dashed off a letter to NDSA chairman Sanjay Kumar Sibal terming the report that was communicated to the State government in a hasty manner “an indictment of the Kaleshwaram project“. The report was prepared without any investigative work and without checking the details submitted by the State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO), to which the State could not agree, he said.

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Referring to the NDSA mention that only 11 out of the 20 documents sought by the committee were received by it, he pointed out that all the documents asked for by the NDSA were shown to the committee during the inspection and subsequent interactive meetings. A letter was received from the NDSA committee subsequently on October 27 requesting to furnish 20 documents on October 29.

“Though we were given no working days to prepare the reports, which are considerably voluminous, we sent 17 of the documents to the committee through email on October 29. The remaining three documents were sent on November 1,” he said, adding that copies of the documents were appended, these were ignored in the report.

“We are surprised that conclusions have been made about the causes of failure of Lakshmi Barrage without any investigative work by the committee. As you are aware, the correct causes can be determined only after proper inspection of the foundation and other related structures, which are currently under water,” he said, adding that a coffer dam was now under construction by the agency to divert the water and facilitate the thorough inspection of the affected portions of the barrage.

“Only once this investigative work is completed, we will be able to assess the correct reasons for the sinking of the piers in the barrage. As such at this point of time, we are unable to agree to your conclusions,” Rajat Kumar said, also countering the NDSA comments on poor quality control.

He noted that the diversion structures such as barrages are subjected to multiplicity of loading conditions like the surface flows, sub-surface flows, uplift pressures, scours and exit gradients, tail water level etc. These challenges individually and collectively are considered in the design process for Medigadda barrage in various combinations. The Bureau of Indian Standards has published 3 codes specifically meant for various aspects related to the design of barrages in addition to guidelines on various related aspects like cement, concrete, steel that are used in the construction of barrages.

Further, the Central Board of Irrigation and Power ( CBIP) have also published manuals on barrages in two volumes to support for deeper understanding. The CDO of Telangana state, which is considered as a premiere institution of the country, has diligently followed the said guidelines cited above for all the projects, more specifically for prestigious projects like Kaleshwaram.

The Kaleshwaram Project has been approved by the Technical Advisory Committee of the Jal Shakti Ministry on June 6, 2018 after thoroughly examining all the aspects like hydrology, costing, planning, environmental clearances etc. In particular, the design of the barrage has been extensively studied by the Costing Directorate of the CWC with respect to functionality and costing. The then Chairman of the Central Water Commission, S. Masood Hussain along with CWC Chief Engineers visited Kaleshwaram project on April 9, 2018.

The Chairman appreciated Telangana government for speedy execution of work and said that they had not seen any irrigation project of such magnitude and described the project as an “engineering marvel”.

Rajat Kumar also said the comments pertaining to Annaram and Sundilla barrages were unsubstantiated as the expert committee did not even visit the two barrages.