Flaws in KLIS barrages keep cropping up before judicial panel
Hyderabad: Likely flaws and lacunae in design of the Kaleshwaram barrages came to the fore yet again during Justice P.C. Ghose commission of inquiry’s hearings with representatives from Afcons, the company that built the Annaram barrage too pointing out to this lapse.
Previously, engineers from Navayuga and L&T, which built the Sundilla and Annaram barrages, too had informed the commission that after the emergence of damages to the barrages’ flood flow protection measures in 2019, several studies by experts had pointed out design inadequacies that resulted in the destruction of flood flow protection systems and had caused seepages, and in the case of Medigadda, led to partial collapse of a part of the barrage.
Responding to questions from Justice Ghose, K. Nagamallikarjuna Rao, the hydro business unit head of Afcons, said that after the 2019 and 2020 floods, they had restored the damaged CC blocks downstream of the barrage, or replaced those that were washed away as per instructions from the irrigation department. Seepages from under the foundation were first noticed in 2020, he said.
On the damages, he said that the barrage gates were fixed in January 2019 but in September 2018, when the river was in spate, and around 5 lakh cusecs of water was flowing into Godavari, there were no damages to the downstream flood protection structures. It was after the gates were fixed in 2019 that floods had caused the damages, he said.
Justice Ghose pointed out that the company used secant pile system for the barrage foundations instead of the sheet pile system, which was specified in the original contract that Afcons entered into with the irrigation department. How could a barrage that should have a lifespan of 100 years, or at least 45 years, suffer damages within a year, he asked.
On whether the Annaram barrage was constructed and completed as per the timeline given to the company, Rao said there were some delays but these were due to the government changing the location of the barrage to a different site than the one originally planned for. This decision was taken to reduce the amount of forest land that would be submerged if the barrage was built at the originally chosen spot, he said.
Meanwhile, Shekar Das, a deputy general manager with Afcons, said that was not sure to what extent the damaged portions of the barrages could be restored.