Medigadda Barrage Disaster: All CDOs Now Under Lens

Hyderabad: The Medigadda barrage disaster, and problems at the Annaram and Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, designed by the Central Designs Organisation of the Telangana irrigation department, appears to have prompted a nation-wide evaluation of capabilities of CDOs by the Central Water Commission.

It is learnt that the CWC has set in motion the process for evaluating CDOs and a team from the CWC is expected to visit Telangana soon.

Incidentally, when Telangana sought approvals for the Sithammasagar project designs prepared by the state CDO, these were specifically vetted by CWC’s director, hydel, civil design before they were cleared. As part of this process, the stability analysis of the barrage was also checked for the load cases as per BIS Codes.

The state irrigation department’s CDO had been under intense scrutiny after the sinking and cracking up of Block 7 of Medigadda barrage which put the barrage out of use. With similar under the foundation leakages, but damages not to the extent that occurred at Medigadda coming to light at the Annaram, and Sundilla barrages, the CWC had earlier said that before it okays the Sithammasagar project plans, it would evaluate the designs.

Now, the CWC, in a letter said that following a review on July 7 under the chairmanship of member (water planning & projects) with regional chief engineers and directors of monitoring and appraisal directorates, it was decided that the concerned chief engineer will submit a proforma report on the status of CDOs of each state.

As part of this vetting exercise, CWC officials will mandatorily visit the CDO premises and assess infrastructure, staff competency, and furnish their reports to the CWC, the letter said.

Among the aspects to be examined are number of dam safety projects, flood protection measures designed by the CDO, manpower and their qualifications, software available for structural analysis and hydrological modelling, and whether each CDO has a training centre and a laboratory. Also to be evaluated are the number of major, minor, multipurpose projects designed by the CDO which received approvals by the state technical advisory committee and that of the department of water resources.