Hyderabad: Blaming the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, the Congress-run Telangana government on Tuesday said that the Medigadda barrage under the state’s irrigation Kaleshwaram project was damaged last year due to mismanagement and lack of maintenance, among other things. Chief minister Revanth Reddy along with ministers took a group of journalists to the site to show the current situation at the barrage, which became an issue during last year’s Assembly polls
In a presentation, the state government claimed that the Medigadda barrage suffered damages as the construction of Block-7 in the works ‘deviated’ from the plan. The government stated that the operation and maintenance were not done since its inauguration on June 21, 2019. It also claimed that the bank guarantees for the project were released despite pending works and an expert committee has been recommended to investigate into the causes of failure of the barrage.
In the run up to the November 30 Assembly polls last year, the damage on the barrage that was noticed by an engineer on October 21, 2023 caused a stir amongst the public. The Congress, led by Revanth Reddy, turned Medigadda into an election issue against the then ruling BRS and ex-chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). Even ex-Congress president and MP Rahul Gandhi turned up at the site as part of the party’s poll campaign. The matter was contentious as the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation scheme is a flagship of the state government, and a brainchild of KCR.
The Kaleshwaran project, under which it falls, was originally called the Pranahita-Chevella Lift Irrigation scheme, and was initiated in 2005 under the then joint Andhra Pradesh government led by the Congress. It was relocated and renamed from Pranahita to Kaleshwaram after the BRS came into power following the creation of Telangana in 2014. The reason given then for the shift were submergence concerns in Maharashtra which shares a border with the state. The Medigadda barrage is one of its bigger works.
The Kaleshwaram project’s total estimated cost was Rs. 80,499.71 Crores, including Rs. 1853.32 Crores for the Medigadda Barrage. It was originally pegged at about Rs 40,000 crore. The Congress government also pointed out several other alleged irregularities in the Medigadda project. It stated that project has had several revisions in administrative approvals, with the initial sanction of Rs. 2591 Crs increased to Rs. 4613 Crs.
“A completion certificate was granted on 15.03.2021, despite the project not being fully completed. Performance securities amounting to Rs. 159.72 Crores were released without addressing notices from the Engineer in Charge,” stated the government’s presentation. It added the Engineer-in-Chief reported the defect liability period began on 29.02.2020, which conflicts with the dates on the completion certificates.
