Kaleshwaram Barrage Repairs Stuck in Standoff With Contractors

Hyderabad: “Your certificate of completion has now been revoked.” – this may well be a message waiting for the Afcons, who built the Annaram dam, and the Navayuga, who built the Sundilla dam of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, after a similar action was taken last September against L&T, which built the Medigadda dam. The irrigation department is feeling the pressure to line up the three agencies to reach an agreement to pay the bills for all activities related to the repair and rehabilitation of dams.

Sources said similar action against L&T PES-JV could be on the agenda if the government decides that this could be the last measure to bring the two companies in line, with irrigation department officials told to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter and prepare appropriate grounds for cancellation of completion certificates issued to Afcons and Navayuga.

It is learned that after the tactic did not yield the desired results from the L&T PES JV, the officials were told to thoroughly examine and explore how such a decision, if taken, could be perfected and force the companies’ hands to do the ministry’s bids.

Meanwhile, despite the cancellation of the certificate issued to L&T PES JV, all indications so far suggest that the department has failed to make any progress in agreeing the company to meet all bills related to any work connected with the repair and rehabilitation of the dam, including the costs for carrying out various geophysical, geotechnical and other tests on the Medigadda dam.

Not just L&T, but two other companies also maintained that all the problems in the dams were not due to faulty construction (the only work for which they were contracted) but to designs provided by the irrigation department.

Meanwhile, it is learned that the irrigation department, which wrote a letter to L&T PES-JV on February 2 stating that the company should own up to the problems in the Medigadda dam and agree to do whatever is necessary to restore the dam no matter the cost, has also sent similar letters to Afcons and Navayuga. However, sources in the ministry said there would be no response to the latest announcements.

Sources said that since the contracts of all three companies (Afcons, Navayuga and L&T) have been completed and the projects have been handed over to the owners (irrigation department), any work has to be treated as new work, which means the irrigation department has to agree in writing that the testing costs will be paid to the companies.

“We believe that the companies will eventually have no option but to fall in line and undertake the repairs at their own expense; after all, problems such as dislodgement of downstream blocks and corrosion of wear jacket on all vents of the three dams occurred on their watch,” said an irrigation department official.

Given the current situation, there is no chance of any design being ready in the near future and with design consultant Afry India being selected for the task for this purpose, officials said the process of receiving test results, preparing the designs and then reviewing them by the Central Water Commission could take at least a year. This means Telangana has to wait at least another year to know the actual plans (if any) for the rehabilitation of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme dams; It will come into effect when the next working season begins with the start of the 2027 summer season.