Kaleshwaram Barrage Repairs: Telangana Clears Rs 4,193 Crore Plan

Telangana’s cabinet has cleared the repair of the three damaged Kaleshwaram barrages, Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla, at an estimated Rs 4,193 crore, with work due to start in December. For contractors and machine owners in the Godavari belt this is river-bed foundation and concrete work on a hard dry-season clock, not a road job, and the fleet it calls for is a narrow one.

What the cabinet cleared

Information minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy told reporters that the CWC and other agencies had given specific instructions on building a cut-off wall upstream and a spillway apron downstream, and that the government would follow them, The New Indian Express reported. The Times of India said the go-ahead covers repairs and rehabilitation at Rs 4,193 crore under National Dam Safety Authority guidelines. At the review, officials said a central expert committee had already given in-principle approval to the preliminary proposals. The cost is split: the construction firms pay to fix construction defects, and the state pays for the additional works. Medigadda’s piers sank in October 2023; Annaram and Sundilla developed leakages.

Which machines this work needs

A cut-off wall is a vertical barrier sunk into the river bed to stop water passing under the structure. On a barrage foundation it is usually built as a diaphragm wall or a line of secant piles, so the lead machines are diaphragm-wall grabs or hydraulic piling rigs, the crawler cranes that carry them, and a bentonite plant. The government has not said which method it will use; that comes with the final design.

The downstream apron is mass concrete laid on the river bed. That pulls batching plants, transit mixers, concrete pumps, excavators to dig and shape the bed, tippers for stone and fill, and dewatering pumps behind cofferdams. It is the classic irrigation and dam fleet, minus the long earth haul.

Timing matters more than the headline value. The Godavari runs high from June, so a December start leaves roughly five to six months of dry-bed working before the next monsoon. That is our reading of the calendar, not a published schedule. Work squeezed into one dry season across three sites is usually hire work: heavy cranes, grabs and pumps get rented for the window, and only a contractor with river work queued behind it has a case to buy.

Who does the work is still open. L&T built Medigadda, and the defect-repair share now sits with the original builders, so part of the Rs 4,193 crore may never reach an open tender. No split between defect work and state-funded work has been published, and no cost per barrage either.

FAQ

How much will the Kaleshwaram barrage repairs cost?

Officials estimate Rs 4,193 crore for all three barrages. It is an estimate, and the share the original contractors will carry for defect repair has not been disclosed.

When will repair work start at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla?

The Chief Minister has asked for final central clearances by end-November and for work to begin in December 2026, in two phases.

What kind of contractor is best placed for this work?

Firms with foundation and river experience: cut-off walls need grabs or piling rigs on crawler cranes, and the apron needs a concrete train that can run inside one dry season.

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Source: The New Indian Express