The sinking of pillars of the Lakshmi Barrage, also known as the Medigadda Barrage, has caused embarrassment for the BRS government before the Assembly elections. The Medigadda Barrage is the starting point of the world’s largest lift irrigation project, constructed by L&T and inaugurated in June 2019 by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
The incident happened on Saturday but was kept secret until Sunday evening. The L&T released a statement after 24 hours, stating that a part of the bridge had sagged and they would take necessary action to fix it.
It is unclear how many pillars have sunk, but some sources say that three to five pillars have sunk between pillar number 15 and 20. There are a total of 87 pillars in the barrage. Traffic between Telangana and Maharashtra has been diverted due to the incident.
Motorists noticed a change in the road alignment on Saturday evening and alerted the Irrigation department and the police. The loud noise was heard near the 20th pillar on the Maharashtra side. Officials inspected the project and found that a portion of the bridge was out of alignment about 300 meters from the Maharashtra border.
During the inauguration, it was stated that the barrage was constructed with large concrete piers. The L&T claimed that the construction involved concrete equivalent to building 7 Burj Khalifas, steel equivalent to building 15 Eiffel Towers, and earth excavation equivalent to 6 pyramids of Giza.
