Vigilance probe holds L&T responsible for Medigadda Barrage damage

The Vigilance and Enforcement inquiry into the damage on the Medigadda Barrage has found L&T responsible due to flaws in construction and lack of maintenance.

The Vigilance and Enforcement inquiry going on into the damage suffered on the Medigadda Barrage, a key component of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP), following sinking of about half-a-dozen piers on the evening of October 21 last has fixed the primary responsibility on L&T, the agency that constructed the 1.632 km long structure.

Highly-placed sources told The Hindu that the field, the inspection conducted at the barrage site with the help of engineering experts for two days has revealed several flaws from the stage of foundation of the structure itself. Further, it was found that there was no proper maintenance of the structure, which is just about four-year old, as the damage was not a development that occurred overnight.

Enquiries with the engineers who were part of the execution of the barrage have revealed to the vigilance probe team that some cracks on the damaged piers, although they were small initially, started developing 24-36 months back itself. The V&E authorities were understood to preparing the preliminary report for submitting it to the government fixing the first responsibility on the contract agency.

“Our enquiries with the Irrigation department officials have revealed that no senior official/engineer visited the barrage since completion of its construction in 2019 till the incident of pier displacement occurred on October 21. It’s the responsibility of work agency to identify the exact cause for the damage and rectify it without wasting much time as one crop season is on the verge of loss,” sources explained.

The irrigation structures such as dams and barrages have to survive at least 75 years as is the life of cement-concrete mix reinforced with steel. The barrage, which would have lesser hydrological pressure compared to dams holding huge quantity of water, should not have failed so early as it holds small volume of water for the purpose of diversion, a senior official part of the probe said.

Flaws were noticed in the design, construction of the barrage from foundation stage and quality check/control during and after construction and the next stage of their inquiry would be fix the responsibility on officials/engineers involved in the project execution. “We will also probe the role of the bureaucrats and fix responsibility on them, if they are found to be lacking in acting properly in decision-making,” a probe official asserted.