Context: Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Telangana is under scrutiny due to structural failures and design flaws, raising concerns over dam safety, governance, and financial viability.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Location of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.
Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project
- World’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project.
- Built on: Godavari River in Telangana.
- Purpose: To ensure irrigation, drinking water, and industrial water supply to drought-prone and water-scarce areas of Telangana by lifting water from the Godavari River and distributing it across districts.
- Lift irrigation: Unlike traditional gravity-based irrigation systems, water does not rely on gravity to flow in canals from higher ground to lower; rather pumps or surge pools are used to lift water to a higher elevation, from where it is distributed to fields via a canal system.
- The project sprawls over approximately 500 km in 13 districts, with a canal network of 1800 km. The project started in 2019.
- As per the project master plan, of the 240 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water- 169 TMC (>70%, is meant for irrigation); 30 TMC is for Hyderabad municipal area; 16 TMC for miscellaneous industrial uses, and 10 TMC to provide drinking water to nearby villages.
- The vast bulk of this water (195 TMC) will come from the Medigadda Barrage. 20 TMC will from Sripada Yellampalli project, and another 25 TMC will be groundwater.
Crisis at Medigadda Barrage
- In 2023, a pillar at the Medigadda Barrage sank which led to partial submergence and flooding. The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) visited the site for a technical assessment.
- Subsequently, the state government requested a thorough inspection of all three barrages: Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla.
NDSA Findings
- NDSA had found a lack of proper geo-technical investigations, design deficiencies, construction defects, failure of modelling studies, structural distress, absence of robust quality control, operation and maintenance failures and dam safety aspects ignored.
NDSA Recommendations
NDSA has recommended a full suite of actions from structural rehabilitation to strengthening of the barrages.
- Rehabilitation of the design, and a comprehensive assessment of health and safety of the entire barrage.
- Immediate stabilisation measures to arrest the ongoing distress.
- Comprehensive geotechnical studies and advanced geophysical assessments to establish a reliable baseline of the ground conditions and structures for future interventions.
- Hydraulic design aided by appropriate hydraulic model studies and structural design through appropriate mathematical modelling software.