Major Repairs May Be Needed to Save KLIS Barrages: Uttam
The Kaddem reservoir brimming on Saturday with fresh inflows laced with mud filling the reservoir.
Yellampalli:The proposed repairs to the Medigadda, Sundilla and Annaram barrages, all three critical components of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS), might require for constructing diaphragm walls along with properly designed stilling basins, irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Saturday.
He said the original detailed project report for the KLIS barrages had recommended diaphragm walls, but, during construction, the design was changed to a secant pile system foundation, indicating that largescale repairs might be required before the barrages could be put to work again.
The Medigadda barrage suffered a partial sinking and sand got washed away from under the foundations at Sundilla and Annaram barrages.
The minister told reporters at the Sripada Yellampalli reservoir that a Central technical oversight committee was supervising the process of preparing designs for the repairs and would take a final call on the way forward. He said he expected the repair designs – being prepared by IIT Bombay and AFRY India — to be ready in about three months, and expressed the confidence that the repairs would be completed before next year’s monsoon season rolled in.
Even if one considers the Rs 1 lakh crore spent on KLIS and its barrages by the then BRS government as a waste of precious funds, there were no political motives in planning the repair and rehabilitation of the barrages, he said. Uttam Kumar Reddy added that there were no political motives in keeping the barrages under free-flow conditions, with the gates being kept open as per directives from the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), which said water should not be stored at the barrages until detailed investigations are done, and repairs are completed.
