Nizamabad: An unidentified person on Sunday evening reportedly tried to open one of the Nizamsagar’s flood gates, which may have put the security at Telangana’s irrigation projects at risk.
While in the process of trying to open the gate, 15,000 cusecs of water was released. The incident took place at gate number 12, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
The release of the water was a result of the disturbance created while opening the gate, however, he was not able to open it. The Nizamsagar dam is a reservoir constructed on the Manjeera river in Nizamabad district.
Meanwhile, irrigation department superintending engineer (SE) C Gangadhar denied any such incident had occurred. “The project staff takes up work to arrest leakages every week and as part of that on Sunday too the staff took up the work,” he said.
On the other hand, Bodhan executive engineer K Madhukar Reddy said officials were taking stock of the security at the dam. It is believed that the intruder may have been one of the tourists who throng the dam during weekends and holidays. On learning of the incident, irrigation staff rushed to the gate and fixed the minor damage caused to it. The officials ruled out vandalization.
After the reported incident, the security has been beefed up and it had been decided not to allow the public into prohibited areas under the project’s limits. The CCTV cameras would be put up at several spots within the project limits to enhance security.
In March, a 40-year-old man opened two crest gates of the Prakasam Barrage on the Krishna river in Vijayawada. Thousands of gallons of water gushed out before the gates were closed.