Kaleshwaram Project 'Biggest Man-Made Disaster' in India, Says Uttam After Ghose Report
PC Ghose Commission blames KCR and officials for Medigadda Barrage collapse
Hyderabad: Irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy stated that the Justice P.C. Ghose commission had held BRS president and then Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao solely responsible for selecting incorrect locations for the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages. The commission also deemed the awarding of contracts on a lump-sum basis instead of a turnkey basis as improper and illegal.
Describing the collapse of a pier of the Medigadda barrage and damage to the other two, the minister called the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) the biggest man-made disaster in independent India, causing irreparable damage to the state. Spoke during a discussion on the commission’s report in the Assembly, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the commission found defects in the designs, drawings, construction, and quality control.
He said that the commission revealed that the original estimates were approved without a thorough examination of the DPR submitted by Wapcos, leading to two revised estimates. It observed malicious intentions by the authorities to benefit agencies and misappropriate public funds. Uttam Kumar also noted the absence of any operation and maintenance for the three barrages, mentioning that there was no agreed Operation and Maintenance Manual.
The commission held Chandrashekar Rao, T. Harish Rao and then finance minister Etala Rajendar, and several officials accountable for the projects’ lapses, he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy pointed out that the BRS government had initiated the KLIS downstream of the Godavari River at Medigadda despite the earlier Congress government spending Rs 11,679 crore on the Pranahita Chevella [roject, which was 32 per cent of the estimated cost of Rs 38,500 crore.
Had the BRS government invested the remaining 68% in the Pranahita-Chevella project, it could have irrigated 16.6 lakh hectares, as it depended 70 per cent on gravity. Instead, the project ended up being defunct, the minister said.
The commission also found the three barrages of Kaleshwaram unviable to continue and stated that the irrigation department now faces a power dues burden of Rs 9,735 crore to the power department, as it consumed 8,450 MW, compared to 3,400 MW required for the Pranahita Chevella project.
Claiming that KLIS did not bring any additional crop area under irrigation, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the state recorded a record harvest of 261 lakh metric tonnes in 2024-25 during the Congress rule, after the barrage collapsed and with no net water usage for crops. In contrast, when Kaleshwaram was operational during the BRS rule, paddy harvests were 186 lakh metric tonnes in 2021-22, 238 lakh metric tonnes in 2022-23, and 253 lakh metric tonnes in 2023-24, he said.
