State Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan on Thursday ordered to initiate action against contractors Shrinivas Construction and Progressive Construction for faulty work of the Temghar dam in Pune district.But the big question is why only these two companies are being held responsible for the leakages . Actually, there was one more company who had been awarded for excellence in the execution of Temghar Masonry Dam. The company was soma enterprises limited and an award was given at the hands of then Minister for Irrigation Ajit Pawar .And interestingly nobody is mentioning its name in the entire episode. And that's why it doesn't seem that real culprits will be taken to justice
Temghar dam has been leaking ever since it was first built. The special investigation team was also formed to investigate leakages in dam and team members had passed hard strictures on the quality of execution, supervision and quality control aspects of Temghar dam. As well Ishwar Chaudhari the then Superintending Engineer, Pune Irrigation Projects Circle, had submitted a technical paper in The first dam safety conference held in Chennai in 2015 . As per this paper, the main cause of leakages in temghar Dam was poor construction quality and bad workmanship. He had also alleged that the firm , Srinivas Constructions to whom work had been allotted had executed it very badly. However, in his paper, Chaudhari had named only one firm Srinivas Constructions and there is no mention of progressive constructions or soma enterprises in his paper. Mega contractor-cum-builder Avinash Bhosale who has links with politicians was joint managing director of the soma enterprises.
In his technical paper Chaudhari has also alleged that
1)Upstream surface undulations and uneven slopes speak of bad workmanship and cement slurry accumulated on the upstream surface, percolated from the shuttering for cold grout masonry reveal that cement grout is not able to occupy the space between the stones due to improper packing between the stages of masonry. Large cavities show the improper laying of stones.
2) From correspondence made by the supervisory staff to the contractor, it reveals that proper mixing equipment was not used for preparing cement grout. Single drum mixer was used instead of double drum mixer which is not able to create the colloidal state of the mix. Also, use of improper grading of artificial sand used seems to be responsible for forming a homogenous masonry. The leakages on downstream are prominent below RL 669 where cold grout masonry is provided.
3)All these lacunae in the execution of cold grout masonry have defeated the purpose of providing it for imparting impermeability to the dam body.
4)There is a provision of stage wise grouting to be carried out before laying next season work. The stage grouting carried out may not have been done effectively to achieve the required impermeability. The field test results recorded at the time of construction shows the required impermeability results however the extent of leakages defies it totally. In situ masonry cores were not sent to MERI Nashik for permeability and strength test, which will reveal real status of strength and permeability parameters of the dam masonry.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) was also formed to investigate leakages in Dam . SIT members visited dam site twice and had passed hard strictures on the quality of execution, supervision and quality control aspects of Temghar dam construction and proposed enquiry by a special squad and also recommended that remedial measures shall be carried out at the risk and cost of the contractor and due payments shall not be released to him.
However, the irrigation department time and again insists that despite the leakage, there was no danger to the dam and no wastage of water. Construction work for the dam had begun in 1997. Till 2001,was finally completed in 2010. By 2006 itself, leaks had surfaced. While the irrigation department waited for the contractor to repair the leaks, nothing has been done so far.
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