Delay in completion of Korata-Chanaka barrage works worries Adilabad residents

ADILABAD: Farmers in the region are concerned over the delay in completion of works of the Korata-Chanaka barrage being constructed on River Penganga on the state’s border.

A fire incident saw a labourer burnt alive at the construction site of the lift irrigation works linked to the Korata-Chanaka barrage at Tamsi-(K) village in Bheempur mandal on Sunday.

This apart, the construction works of the barrage are going on at snail’s place. As per its schedule, the barrage should have been completed two years ago.

Forest minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy visited the barrage site on December 25, 2019, and inquired about the pace of construction works. His brother Muralidhar Reddy is the contractor for the construction of the barrage.

Adilabad MLA Jogu Ramanna kept saying the works will be completed soon and water for irrigation would be provided to nearly 50,000 acres in the Adilabad Assembly constituency.

Two labourers at the Korata-Chanaka barrage works died and two engineers were seriously injured when iron rope snapped while they were working in Jainad mandal in the district in July 2019.

The project was meant to give water to Bheempur, Adilabad, and Jainad mandals in the district. The project with a storage capacity of 0.85 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water was taken up at a cost of Rs 350 crore, but the cost escalated to Rs 500 crore. The project has 23 pillars and 22 gates.

The flooding of the river hit the construction works of the Korata-Chanaka barrage repeatedly during the rainy season.

Recently, Indrakaran Reddy reviewed the progress of various irrigation projects with the irrigation officials and local MLAs and ZP chairmen in the old Adilabad district.