Telangana: Amid unprecedented inflows, Kaddam Project stands rock solid

Kaddam Project in Kaddampeddur mandal centre overcame nature’s fury after being on the verge of facing a breach by unprecedented inflows

Nirmal: The Kaddam Narayana Reddy Project, one of the oldest irrigation projects in Telangana, in Kaddampeddur mandal centre overcame nature’s fury after being on the verge of facing a breach by unprecedented inflows on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the surplus water overflowed the barrage following record inflows due to heavy rains in upstream areas thereby putting authorities of the Irrigation Department on their toes.

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It registered inflows of 3,86,284 lakh cusecs as per a bullet released by irrigation officials at 7 am. The water level reached 8.067 TMC as against the storage capacity of 7.60 TMC. Surplus water is being discharged downstream by lifting 14 gates of the total 18. Four gates imported from Germany were dysfunctional, worrying locals and officials. The water overflowed the project where the gates were located.

Two gates did not have counterweight, while the ropes of the remaining two gates had snapped. Both Khanapur MLA A Rekha Naik and Collector K Varun Reddy monitored the situation.

The Collector instructed officials to relocate 7,000 people dwelling in seven villages to relief centres opened in government schools and hostels. Devunigudem, Rampur, Munyala and Godisherala villages were shifted to the relief camps.

Forest Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy visited the project which was in the danger zone, by 10 am. He said the four gates had abruptly developed a snag from Wednesday. They were functional till a few days back. Engineers who tried to lift the gates were unsuccessful. Experts were being roped in to address the problem.

By evening, the project saw a dip in inflows when compared to the morning, bringing relief to the locals and officials. By evening, two gates were lifted using an earthmover and with the help of local youngsters who extended their support to Irrigation officials. Fortunately, inflows into the project plummeted by this time.

The project registered inflows of 1.29 lakh cusecs at 6 pm, with the outflow of surplus water being 2.13 lakh cusecs. Similar situation in 2022 On July 13 in 2022, the project saw inflows of 5,09,025 cusecs.

Surplus water was discharged downstream by lifting 17 gates. The outflow was 2.99 lakh cusecs then. Dwellers of 10 villages were shifted to safer places and rehabilitation centres.

Tributary of Godavari As per the history of the project, the dam was taken up across the Kaddam river, a tributary of Godavari, in 1949 by the then erstwhile government of Hyderabad to irrigate 68,150 acres of agriculture fields on the northern flank of Godavari. It was commissioned in 1958.