Andhra to rope in expert divers to free boats stuck near Prakasam barrage

Despite several attempts using heavy cranes to remove the wooden boats each weighing around 40-50 tonnes, the team couldn’t find any success

Andhra Pradesh irrigation minister Nimmala Ramanaidu told reporters on Wednesday that engineers from the department, along with experts from Bekem Infra Projects Pvt Ltd, will be roping in expert divers from Visakhapatnam and Kakinada to free the three heavy boats that remain stuck near the Prakasam barrage on the Krishna river in Vijayawada.

Five boats had rammed into the barrage at gates 67, 69 and 70 on the night of September 1 when all 70 gates were opened to release the flood water downstream (ANI)

“These experts will enter the water and dismantle the boats by cutting them into pieces using specialised cutters,” he said.

Despite several attempts using heavy cranes to remove the wooden boats each weighing around 40-50 tonnes, the team couldn’t find any success. All efforts to detangle the boats were met with no luck. The boats had collided with some of the barrage’s gates on the night of September 1.

“The exercise, which had been going on since Monday, was abandoned on Tuesday, as the cranes could not remove the boats which got entangled together with a plastic rope. As they got filled with sand, this only added to the pressure. They got stuck up against the barrage gates,” Ramanaidu said.

After the boats are cut, the irrigation department officials will decide whether to send the pieces downstream with the water flow or lift them out with cranes and move them away from the barrage using air balloons.

Five boats had rammed into the barrage at gates 67, 69 and 70 on the night of September 1 when all 70 gates were opened to release the flood water downstream.

One of them got washed away in the floods through opened gates and the other three got stuck up at the gates. Meanwhile, the other remaining boat could not be traced.

Ramanaidu said the heavy boats damaged the counterweight of gate No 69 of the barrage. However, the main structures of the gates were not damaged.

The operation to remove the boats was undertaken after police arrested two people named Kukkalagadda Ushadri and Komati Rammohan on Monday evening, after identifying them as the owners of the boats based on their registration numbers. Both were produced before a court, which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

Ramanaidu alleged that there was a conspiracy behind the incident.

He said the investigations were on due to suspicion that boats were deliberately left in the river to damage the barrage. “It is beyond one’s comprehension to imagine what the damage would have been if the boats collided with the main structure,” he said.

The minister said all boats carried Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) colours. There are suspicions it could be a “deliberate sabotage”, he said.

The minister also said that the heavy boats were merely tied to each other with a plastic rope.

He stated that the boats were neither anchored nor did the owners take any precautionary measures to secure them tightly.