Opposition Spreading Lies on Jurala Dam: Uttam

 Hyderabad: The government will build a bridge by the side of the Jurala dam in Jogulamba Gadwal district, and irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday said Rs 100 crore was being sanctioned immediately for the purpose.

The road on the dam currently connects the two sides of Krishna river on which the dam is built. The regular traffic is resulting in repeated need for repairs of the road surface. Once the new bridge is built, vehicular traffic load on the dam will be eliminated.

Uttam Kumar Reddy, speaking to reporters after visiting the dam along with minister Vakiti Srihari, said Opposition parties were indulging in wishful thinking claiming that there were serious problems at the Jurala dam, and accused them of spreading lies about non-existent problems at the dam.

He said there was no truth in the allegations that the ropes used to lift four of the gates at the dam had snapped. “The process of repairing and replacing the ropes was on when the floods began early this year. The Opposition parties are indulging in wishful thinking that something disastrous will happen here. There is no problem here and maintenance works are going on and because of the early floods this summer, there were some setbacks,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

He also said that the previous government sat on a demand from irrigation department for a second gantry crane for lifting the gates. “We will soon be installing a second gantry crane at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore,” he said.

Minister Srihari said there were absolutely no problems at the Jurala dam, and routine maintenance works were being shown by Opposition parties as if some major problems had occurred. The Jurala dam withstood an inflow of 12 lakh cusecs in 2009, he pointed out. “The allegations of problems are to mislead the public. This year, the floods came in May itself and this resulted in delays in completing the routine maintenance works,” Srihari said.