Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (RJP)
Bantwal, May 17: A sudden flood in Netravati river has caused much damage. Items and equipment worth Rs 1 crore that were being used for the construction of the new dam have been washed away in the flooded river water.
The incident happened on the night of Friday May 15 at Thumbay where the construction items for the road repair and dam related work were stocked. The stock contained some equipment also. The blame has been put on the water which flowed from Shambur AMR dam. The floodgates were opened at Shambur without any warning, it is alleged.
Shambur dam can store water up to 18.9 metres. But as the water flow reached above 19.4 metres, all the problems started. The water from Shambur reached Thumbay within two hours and construction items like steel rods, pumps, plastic pipes etc were washed off from the storage site. The sheds belonging to labourers were also damaged.
The mud road specifically laid to assist in the construction work has been completely destroyed. As per Shekar, section officer at the site, a week is required to make a new mud road and it may take another two weeks to arrange the construction items required.
As per Ravichandra, the accounts officer, civil work in the dam was 90 % complete with technical work 50 % remaining. there was plan to finish all the work in the next 15 days and hence all the required items were brought to the site and now most of them have gone into the river.
Around 200 labourers who were at the site were getting ready to sleep after supper when the water came suddenly. As they were alert, major casualty was averted. But the construction items could not be saved as everything happened in a matter of five minutes in front of their eyes, says Sheshu site in- charge. 100 hp pump worth Rs 10 lacs, steel rods worth Rs 50 lacs, 3 other pumps of 30 hp capacity were part of the items lost. A generator worth Rs 12 lacs has been found trapped in mud.
Even during this sudden flood, the workers have managed to save Telebelt rotect concrete flooring machine worth Rs 5 crore. They managed to save it in a matter of three minutes, it is said. The machine helps in mixing concrete and in filling the mixture in to appropriate places.
As in Baddakatte and Nandavara dams, the siren has to be opened as a warning and only after three hours of the siren, water gates can be opened. But unfortunately no siren was heard on the night of May 15. Even tahasildar Purandara Hegde was not aware of these developments.
It is years since the new dam was opened. Due to objections by affected, survey problems, delay in compensation, shortage of labour, flood problems, apathy by contractors and various problems the work was delayed but went on for the past three months. Now because of the present problem, the work may not progress as expected, says Vishnumurthy the supervisor in the site.
The flow of unexpected flood water was of 2 meter height and of 20 meter width. Such inflow is dangerous by any standards. But a warning could have saved the damage, say a site engineer.