Bantwal: Flash flood in river Netravathi washes away construction materials worth crores
Bellevision Media Network
Bantwal, 16 May 2015: A flash flood in Netravathi river caused allegedly due to unintimated release of water at Shamboor dam, on Saturday, May 16 washed away construction materials worth crores of rupees stocked up for the construction of new vented dam, at Thumbe.
The workers who were present near the Thumbe vented dam, intimated their officials about rising water level in river Nethravathi and following this, the officials and the workers cleared off some construction materials but iron rods, cements sacks, water pumps, sheds of workers and diesel generators were washed away in the current.
Shamboor AMR dam has the capacity of storing water up to 18.9 feet. Owing to the continuous rainfall in the region the additional 19.4 mts water was released to Thumbe dam.
The workers at Thumbe dam say that when the excessive water is released from AMR dam, the officials must inform the workers and other concerned persons at Thumbe.
The construction of the new vented dam has been handed over to Rithwik and Sapna Construction of Hyderabad. The site in-charge Sheshu stated that thankfully there were no much labourers at the time of the incident which averted major casualty.
“If the workers did not intimate us about the overflow of water then nearly 200 workers would have met watery grave,” he added.
The flow of the water was such that within five minutes entire land was flooded submerging all the construction materials including sheds of labourers. Amidst the chaos the workers were able to move Telebelt Rotect Concrete Pouring Machine worth Rs five crore from the incident spot.
The loss of property includes Rs 50 lac worth Steel rods, 100 hp water pumps worth Rs 10 lacs, Rs 10 lacs worth generator. The connective road to the river is also said to be washed away due to the overflow of water.
Section Officer Shekar said that it would take another week to reconstruct the road and other basic amenities at the site.