Vijayawada: Shockingly, warnings by the dam safety inspection team over the state of disrepair of the crest gates of the Prakasam Barrage went unheeded. The inspection team had also appealed to the officials to take up repairs immediately to the gates to prevent damage.
The team members, including retired CE I.S.N. Raju, retired CE K. Satyanarayana , Chief Engineer, CDO M. Giridhar Reddy and SDSO director Narender Reddy inspected the Prakasam Barrage in April, 2014 and submitted a report to the authorities for necessary action.
The team members, in their report submitted on May 3, stated that there was no maintenance of gates, rusting of the gates and horizontal girders, damage to side and bottom seals and leakage of water. The officials observed that immediate repairs should be taken up of the Barrage due to threat of damage.
Responding to the report, the government sanctioned Rs 45 lakh in June. However, the repairs were not taken.
The irrigation officials brought the problems they faced lifting the crest gates during the 2009 floods to the notice of the inspection team.
The inspection team recommended checking of all the rollers and replacement of damaged rollers as jammed rollers could lead to operational trouble to lift the gates at the time of floods. They observed that the hydro mechanical equipment was not operated or maintained since a long time and this may have led to the rollers being jammed.
The safety inspection team also observed that some of the vertical stiffeners were damaged due to rusting and the welded joints disturbed. The bottom portion of vertical stiffeners was more affected.
When the dam safety committee again inspected the Prakasam Barrage recently, the irrigation officials said that they failed to take up repairs to Barrage gates as they are busy in releasing drinking water to tail end areas of Krishna delta.
Sensing a threat to the Barrage gates, the engineering officials are planning to repair the gates and complete the maintenance works by December this year.
