Kaleshwaram project: What went wrong with Telangana's mega irrigation dream

A section of Kaleshwaram project (Source: Twitter)

Telangana’s flagship Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP), once touted as a game-changer for the state’s water woes, is now mired in controversy and structural distress. The recently released final report by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has laid bare a series of design, construction operational flaws, sparking a fierce political row and raising serious questions about the project’s future.

What is the Kaleshwaram Project?

The KLIP was envisioned as one of the world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation schemes, designed to draw water from the Godavari river and irrigate over 18 lakh acres, while also supplying drinking and industrial water to Telangana. The project involved constructing three major barrages - Medigadda, Annaram Sundilla - across the river, with the aim of lifting and transporting water to drought-prone regions.

What did the NDSA find?

The NDSA’s 378-page report, submitted to the state government in late April, paints a grim picture. The most critical finding is the irreversible damage to the seventh block of the Medigadda barrage, where piers sank, cracked shifted. Similar issues like sand piping, cavity formation beneath the raft design deficiencies were found in other blocks and at the Annaram and Sundilla barrages, rendering all three structures unserviceable.

The committee recommended that the damaged block at Medigadda should not be used for gate operations and must be either safely decommissioned or removed. It also called for comprehensive investigations, fresh structural analyses rehabilitation plans for all three barrages, with oversight from the Central Water Commission.

Key reasons for the crisis

Flawed Design and Construction: The NDSA found that the barrages were built with significant deviations from approved parameters crucial geo-technical investigations were either inadequate or skipped altogether.

The design flood for Sundilla, for instance, was found to be underestimated.

Ignored warnings and protocols: Safety protocols were ignored, borehole investigations were inadequate maintenance records were missing - a violation of legal mandates. Early signs of seepage and damage, noticed as far back as 2019, were reportedly disregarded.

Premature construction: All three barrages were constructed while the project’s detailed report was still under appraisal by central agencies, raising questions about regulatory oversight.

Operation and maintenance failures: The absence of a proper O&M manual contributed to the malfunctioning of hydro-mechanical components across the barrages.

Financial overreach: The project’s cost ballooned from an initial estimate of around Rs 82,000 crore to over Rs 1.47 lakh crore, with most funding coming from high-interest loans, according to Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report. Telangana is now paying ?16,000 crore annually in repayments, straining state finances.

Political fallout

The NDSA report has triggered an intense blame game. Telangana’s Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy has labelled KLIP as “the biggest man-made disaster since Independence” and accused the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of “inefficiency, negligence deliberate mismanagement”. He argued that the project was not based on scientific principles but on “propaganda and false publicity” that the original, more sustainable Pranahita-Chevella plan was abandoned in favour of the costlier Kaleshwaram.

“All three barrages have structurally collapsed. This is public money lost due to a political stunt,” IANS quoted Uttam Kumar Reddy. The Irrigation minister adding that those responsible would not be spared.

The BRS, for its part, has rejected the NDSA’s findings, calling the report politically motivated and questioning its credibility, as no on-site inspections were conducted before finalisation. BRS working president KT Rama Rao alleged the timing of the report’s release was aimed at damaging the party’s image ahead of its silver jubilee celebrations.

Broader implications

The Kaleshwaram crisis is being seen as a cautionary tale about the risks of large-scale infrastructure projects executed without adequate scientific, financial regulatory rigour. It has reignited debates about transparency, accountability the real benefits of mega irrigation schemes in India.

As Telangana grapples with the aftermath, the fate of the Kaleshwaram project remains uncertain the state’s farmers and taxpayers are left to bear the brunt of what many now call a monumental policy failure.