Unprotected roads all along the SRSP canals and the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) canals pose a threat to road users, particularly the vehicle-users, in various parts of undivided Karimnagar district.
Though the irrigation authorities had constructed 2,500 protection walls all along the canals at bridges in the district, there are no protection walls or railings all along the distributory canals of the Kakatiya canal. The distribution canals pass through over 250 km. in the district.
Even the SRSP flood flow canal which was filled with KLIP water as part of the rejuvenation programme is also posing threat to the road users all along the canal covering around 160 km.
Majority of the villagers located along the canals use the unprotected roads abutting the canals to reach their destination and there are several incidents of vehicles plunging into the canals killing people.
The roads along the irrigation canals do not have any side walls and railings and there are dangerous curves and unprotected too. Several villagers travel in autorickshaws risking their lives along the canals as there was no other way for them to reach the main roads.
Akula Manohar Rao, a resident of Gattududennapalli village of Manakondur mandal, said that that the villagers of Munjampalli and Edulagattepalli villages are forced to travel on kachha road along the irrigation canal very dangerously, risking their lives, as there are no barricades or railings along the canal.
Earlier, there was hardly any water in the canal. But due to Kaleshwaram project, there is a steady flow of water into the canals and it had become risky for the road users to travel along the canals.
When the government is spending several crores of rupees for the construction of projects and canals, it can also accord priority for the safety of the road users by constructing railings along the canals to prevent accidents and erection of radium signboards, he urged.
Admitting the irrigation canals were now posing threat to the road users due to availability of abundant water following Kaleshwaram project, an irrigation official said that they had erected around one meter earth bund along the roads adjoining canal to avoid accidents.
“We had also informed the villagers not to use the roads along the canal. But, the villagers will use them as the distance is shorter to travel,” he stated.
In the wake of a series of accidents with vehicles plunging into the canals and killing people, he said that they have decided to submit a proposal to the State government for the construction of railings all along the canals in the district following the advice of the State road safety authority.
Ironically, officials of the Telangana road safety authority have not visited the district in spite of several accidents -- to take necessary corrective measures, he noted.