Telangana: In 'World's Largest Lift Irrigation Project', Dam Safety Team Flags Faults In Design, Planning And Maintenance

After the sinking of six piers of the Medigdda (Laxmi) Barrage of the Kaleshwaram Project, which is touted as the biggest lift irrigation project in the world, across river Godavari in the Bhoopalpally district of Telangana, a six-member expert team of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has now revealed that faults related to planning and designing of the project, along with its operation and maintenance, led to the damage. The committee’s report comes as a blow to the KCR led-BRS that is seeking a third term in the assembly polls in Telangana later this month.

The team led by NDSA chairman Anil Jain visited the site on October 24 to inspect the damage. The 43-page report, which was made public on November 1, has made disastrous claims against the state government’s project, which has been under the radar of opposition parties ever since its inception. 

In October 2020, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) held that environmental clearance (EC) for the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project was granted ex post facto after completion of substantial work by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) “in violation of law”. 

What is the Kaleshwaram project?

The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project is a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in Kaleshwaram, Bhupalpally, Telangana. It was inaugurated on 21 June 2019, by Telangana governor Narasimhan and chief ministers K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), Fadnavis (Maharashtra) and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh).

The project — built at a cost of nearly Rs 1 lakh crore, aims at irrigating over 10 million acres in northern Telangana. It also seeks to provide water for drinking and irrigation purposes to about 45 lakh acres in 20 of the 31 districts in Telangana, apart from Hyderabad and Secunderabad. 

In October this year, pillars of the Medigdda (Laxmi) Barrage of the Kaleshwaram Project sank due to heavy inflows, paralysing movement of vehicles between Telangana and Maharashtra.  The structure is now "useless unless fully rehabilitated", the NDSA’s report said. 

Report’s findings

The primary reason for the failure of the pillars, the report says, is the settlement of the barrage raft. “The piers, being monolith with it, have also settled, moved and cracked. This could occur due to several possible reasons such as piping, wherein transportation of foundation material has occurred. Inadequate bearing capacity of the foundation material (sand), failure of upstream secant piles due to barrage load also led to the failure,” the report explained.

The report also observed faults within the project planning and design. “The Barrage has been designed as a floating structure but constructed as a rigid structure. The contiguous secant pile type cutoffs adopted by the project authorities were taken up to rock both upstream and downstream of the barrage. This has changed the structure behaviour from the designed," the NDSA report said. 

The Telangana State Dam Safety Organisation is expected to undertake frequent checks before and after the monsoon season to assess for any scours or signs of distress. However, this has not been complied with. “In this regard, this maintenance deficiency of the dam owners has progressively weakened the barrage, leading to its failure. This is a significant lapse on the operation and maintenance front,” the report laments.

‘Kaleshwaram ATM’

The BJP and the Congress have frequently alleged that KCR was using the Kaleshwaram Project as an ATM. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, this phrase has been used to target the BRS government and allege that the project was being used to siphon off Rs 1 lakh crore rupees.

A few days ago, the Telangana Congress upped their attack by installing a mock ATM, named ‘Kaleshwaram ATM,’ in different parts of the state and also coined the slogan “Kaleshwaram Corruption Rao.”

Congress workers were seen inserting fake Rs 2000 note bills, with the picture of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on them, into the ATM to indicate that the KCR government had been using the project as an ATM.

A similar campaign on corruption was carried out by the Congress ahead of Karnataka Assembly Elections in May wherein they pasted ‘Pay CM’ and ‘30% Commission’ sarkar posters on walls across the state. 

The BRS government, meanwhile, has hit back at both the parties asking how there can be corruption of Rs 1 lakh crore in a Rs 80,000 crore project. The party, however, has not reacted to the NDSA’s report yet. Party working president and Telangana minister K T Rama Rao told reporters that the barrage withstood the last five flood seasons. “Let the dam safety committee inspect the project. In any case, the contracted agency will bear the cost of any repair,” he said.