Tungabhadra dam gate crash puts AP on alert

Hospet/Koppal: The crash of gate number 19 of the Tungabhadra dam at Hospet on the AP-Karnataka border is likely to cause water problems during the Rabi season. The gate got washed away due to heavy inflows into the project on Saturday around midnight.

This resulted in about one lakh cusecs of water going waste downstream. According to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shiv Kumar and TDP MLA Kalva Srinivasulu, who visited the dam premises and held discussions with officials, said that they cannot install a new gate unless 60 TMC of water was emptied from the dam. They said to reduce pressure on the dam, they had to lift all the 33 gates and allow water to flow down. They said about nine TMC of water can be emptied per day.

AP Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav spoke to the dam officials and offered to send a team of engineers from AP to help bring situation under control. Arrangements were being made to install temporary crest gates. Keshav said that two contractors were finalised to design and prepare temporary crest gates. As a result of this heavy discharge of water, Sunkesula is getting huge inflows and the surrounding villages of Kothalam, Kosigi and Mantralayam in Kurnool district have been put on high alert and the district administration has been geared up to meet the challenges.

A probe has also been ordered to find out the cause for such an incident which is said to have taken place for the first time in 70 years. According to Kalva Srinivasulu, during annual maintenance it appears that the condition of the chains was not checked. He said another point that assumes importance here is that AP government has to bear 35% of the maintenance cost of the dam. But in the last five years, no money was released by the previous government.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the situation and sent the central design commissioner and design engineers’ team to Hospet, where the dam is located.