The Peddavagu medium irrigation project in Telangana’s Aswaraopeta mandal, bordering Andhra Pradesh, suffered a major breach on Thursday night resulting in inundation of vast tracts of agricultural lands in Gummadivalli and Kothuru, the downstream villages in Bhadradri Kothagudem district and in many villages in Eluru district of neighbouring A.P.
No loss of life was reported. However, there were reports of loss of cattle in the flash floods in Peddavagu. Aggrieved villagers blamed the poor maintenance of the project situated along the Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border for the incident.
Sources said that two of the three gates of the project were opened by the staff after heavy rains in the catchment areas brought copious inflows into the reservoir on Thursday. The bund of the project developed a breach for about 100 meters after the heavy inflows exceeded the outflows as the remaining gate of the project got stuck, sources said.
However, the officials are yet to determine the exact cause of the breach of the earthen bund.
It may be mentioned that 26 marooned farm labourers and several cattle grazers were rescued from the flood-affected areas of Narayanapuram and Bachuvarigudem villages in the downstream of Peddavagu on Thursday evening.
The Peddavagu project site is located in Telangana’s Gummadivalli village while the 80% of its ayacut is spread in Andhra Pradesh’s Eluru district.
About 2000 acres of the total ayacut of around 16,000 acres is in Telangana and the rest in Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Bhadradri-Kothagudem District Collector Jitesh V. Patel and Superintendent of Police B. Rohit Raju visited the flood-affected Gummadivalli and Kothuru villages on Friday.
Several aggrieved farmers sought compensation for the loss of crops and cattle. They deplored that they were facing an uncertain future following the breach of the project’s bund.
