By Balu Pulipaka

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Hyderabad:Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday called on L&T, Afcons, and Navayuga, the agencies that built the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project (KLIS) on the Godavari river to be prepared for completing the required geophysical and geotechnical studies required for having repair and rehabilitation designs for the barrages.The minister, who met with representatives of the three companies to discuss the way forward, directed the Central Designs Organisation (CDO) of the irrigation department to identify an institution with expertise in preparing the required designs for repairing the barrages within the next fortnight.Much of the work in fresh designs for repairs and rehabilitation are required for the Medigadda barrage with a part of its Block 7 suffering serious damage in October 2023 with three of its piers developing cracks and portion of the block partially sinking into the river bed. Problems of serious seepage from under the foundations of the Annaram and Sundilla barrages too came to light soon after.The tests can be taken up after the current flood season ends at at Annaram and Sundilla, but at Medigadda, since much of the water comes from Pranahita river that joins Godavari upstream of this barrage, construction of a fresh coffer dam to divert the river’s flow will be required and tests may be possible only sometime next year when the summer season sets in when the flows are at the lowest.The minister, who also reviewed issues related to other projects with senior irrigation officials, said all required documentation must be ready for the state to make its case before the Krishna Waters Dispute Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) for the hearings next week in New Delhi on sharing of Krishna water with Andhra Pradesh.On the Pranahita-Chevella project, he told officials to prepare plans with fixing the barrage height at Tummidihatti at 150 metres. When the project was originally proposed during the Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government in unified Andhra Pradesh, the height was to be 152 metres with plans to lift 165 TMCft of water a year from Tummidihatti to the Sripada Yellampalli reservoir. However, the BRS government later in a bid to reach an agreement with Maharashtra and address that state’s concerns over submergence of land, reduced the height to 148 metres, but later gave up the idea to go ahead with the redesigned Kaleshwaram project with barrages at Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla.The Congress government which said it will revive the Pranahita-Chevella project, believes that for the project to serve its purpose, it would have to have a height of 150 metres and the minister directed officials to plan accordingly and start work on a revised detailed project report.Uttam Kumar Reddy also told the officials at Saturday’s meeting to prepare the necessary documentation for seeking funds for the Chanaka-Korata barrage, Chinna Kaleshwaram and Sitarama projects under the Prime Minister’s Krishi Sichayi Yojana as these projects have already received techno economic clearances from the Centre. He said officials should strive to keep a check on the expected costs of proposed projects as well as ongoing ones and ensure resources are not wasted.