Tungabhadra dam gates: Expert committee recommends complete replacement for safety

VIJAYAWADA: All the 33 gates of the Tungabhadra project should be replaced, suggested the high-level expert committee, comprising hydro-mechanical and dam safety engineers, that was set up after one of the gates of the project got washed away last month .
Govts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana have to share the burden of the replacement of gates and take up major maintenance works suggested by the committee.

The committee headed by AK Bajaj submitted its report to Tungabhadra Dam Authority about a fortnight ago. The report was forwarded to Karnataka govt which shared its views with the AP and Telangana govts. Sources said that a high-level meeting of irrigation ministers of three states is likely to be held shortly to take a final call on the issue.
Sources said that the committee examined all aspects of dam safety during its three-day long inspection. The committee felt that there was a need to take up thorough inspection of the piers of the structure after water level in the project comes down during the off-season.
It, however, strongly recommended immediate replacement of gates as its life expired almost 25 years ago and needed immediate replacement.
The committee also recommended to keep stop-logs ready to handle emergencies before the replacement of the gates.
During the recent gate mishap, the dam engineers initially thought of emptying the dam to erect stoplog. However, senior hydro-mechanical engineer Kannanaiah Naidu, who worked in Tungabhadra dam, swung into action and resolved the issue by erecting the stoplog even when the dam had almost 80 percent water.
This adventurous act saved almost 60 tmc of water in the project. The committee felt that it would be extremely difficult to handle such an emergency on every instance and hence it would be better to go for replacement of the gates.
Keeping in view of the fact that it took nearly 4-5 days to get the stoplog ready during the recent mishap, the committee advised to keep 1-2 stoplogs ready to handle emergencies.
It has also suggested the dam authority not to keep the water to its Full Reservel Level (FRL) to reduce pressure on the gates and piers. The authorities are opting for keeping waters to its FRL at 1653ft.