KCR Went to War with God with KLIS Barrages, Lost: Konda Vishweshwar Reddy

Hyderabad: The Kaleshwaram project is “technically the world’s biggest engineering blunder” and the results are there now for all to see, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, the BJP MP from Chevella, said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters Vishweshwar Reddy also said fellow BJP MP Etala Rajendar was not wrong when he said the project decisions were taken by the then state Cabinet. “It was a case of cabinet being KCR and KCR meant Cabinet. So decisions taken by KCR were seen as decisions taken by cabinet. Had Etala been asked by the judicial commission if he meant KCR when he said the project had cabinet approvals, then Etala would have said yes,” Vishweshwar Reddy said.

“On the engineering front, he said there was no system analysis, and no consideration give to principles of geohydromorphology when the Kaleshwaram barrages were designed and built. Many structural, electrical, and irrigation engineering mistakes were made the project’s economic viability was not studied,” he said.

The biggest of all the blunders was there was complete failure to understand how weather influences use of a project.

“This was a battle between God vs KCR. The river flows only during rainy season, and for two years, they pumped water from Medigadda to Annram to Sundilla and to Yellampalli reservoir but had to let it go back downstream past Medigadda. So the water kept going up, and then down the river. So you know who won this battle,” he said.

Vishweshwar Reddy went on to explain further saying “when they realised that in summer — the season when water is required — they have no water to pump, they began storing water at Medigadda and other two barrages. This raised the water level on one side and irrespective of the foundation design, the sand under the foundation comes under pressure from stored water, starts getting washed away. This is what happened there.” The foundations got affected, and the damages happened, he added.