Video suggests 'leak' at Telangana's Mid Manair dam, Cong alleges shoddy construction

However, officials said that there was nothing to worry about, and maintained that there is a system in place for a small amount of water to travel through, and for the seepage to collect.
Video suggests 'leak' at Telangana's Mid Manair dam, Cong alleges shoddy construction
Video suggests 'leak' at Telangana's Mid Manair dam, Cong alleges shoddy construction
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A video of an alleged 'leak' at Mid Manair Dam in Telangana's Rajanna Sircilla district, which is a part of the state government's flagship Kaleshwaram Irrigation project, has triggered a row.

The video, which surfaced earlier this week, shows water oozing out from under the ground, close to the edge of the bottom of the dam, next to the earth bund, close to Kandikotkur village. Locals, who saw the water, called up officials of the Irrigation Department immediately.

While the Congress in Telangana has latched on to the issue, alleging that it was shoddy construction work that led to the alleged seepage, irrigation officials said that it was nothing out of the ordinary.

In a statement on Sunday, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Working President Ponnam Prabhakar alleged large-scale irregularities in the construction of the structure by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and sought a detailed judicial enquiry into the safety of the dam. He alleged that the bund had already weakened, which was causing the problem.

However, speaking to TNM, G Ashok, Executive Engineer of Mid Manair, with the state's Irrigation Department said, "The video being spread on social media is misleading. As per convention, we place filters close to the dam, downstream. There is a system in place for a small amount of water to travel through, and for the seepage to collect at particular points." 

"Now, along the 10-km bund of the dam, we measure the seepage collected at various points and calibrate it to keep track of the quality and quantity of water in the reservoir. This is something we observe day and night. There is no additional seepage," he added.

Ashok said that while the passage of this water generally takes place underground, some water managed to escape and flow onto the surface, which had caused panic among local residents.

"We spoke to the locals and assured them that it is nothing to worry about," Ashok said.

The Mid Manair dam was in the news when cracks had developed on its earth bund in August.

The cracks developed after the dam received around 15 tmc ft of water in August. Following this, authorities had opened all 25 gates of the structure and released water to the Lower Manair dam. They later carried out repairs, and filled water in the dam by releasing it from the Yellampalli reservoir upstream.

The Mid Manair Reservoir is a balancing reservoir across Manair river, where surplus water from the Sriram Sagar Project is stored. It is proposed to irrigate around 2,32,000 acres in the districts of Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Warangal Urban, Siddipet and Jangaon.

Billed as the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project, the Kaleshwaram project was formally inaugurated in June. When fully operational, the Rs 80,000 crore project will lift two thousand million cubic (TMC) feet of water per day to a height of half-a-kilometre.

It is designed to irrigate 45 lakh acres for two crops in a year, meet drinking water requirement of 70% of the state, and also cater to the needs of industry.

IANS inputs

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