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APPENDIX- 3 TUNGABHADRA DAM

The Tungabhadra dam is constructed across the Tungabhadra River, a tributary of the Krishna River. The dam is located near the town of Hospet in Karnataka. It is a multipurpose dam or project serving irrigation, electricity generation, flood control, etc. This is a joint project of erstwhile Hyderabad state and erstwhile Madras Presidency when the construction was started but later it became joint project of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh after its completion in the year 1953. Latitude 15.3 (decimal degrees): Longitude 76.3333 (decimal degrees): The dam is filled as when the water is let into the canals during the rainy season. The main architect of the dam was Thirumalai Iyengar, an engineer from Madras. As Tungabhadra Dam was constructed by him, so a general-purpose hall in this place was named after him. It has become a picnic or tourist spot over the years. The dam is near to heritage site Hampi. The dam creates the biggest reservoir on the Tungabhadra River with 101 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) of gross storage capacity at full reservoir level (FRL) 498 m MSL, and a water spread area of 378 square kilometres. The dam is 49.5 meters high above its deepest foundation. The left canal emanating from the reservoir supplies water for irrigation entirely in Karnataka state. Two right bank canals are constructed one at low level and the other at high level both for serving irrigation in Karnataka and Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. Hydro power units are also installed on canal drops. The reservoir water is also used to supply water to downstream barrages Rajolibanda and Sunkesula located on the Tungabhadra River. The identified water utilization from the project is 230 tmc by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh got 151 tmc and 79 tmc water use entitlement respectively.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, U.V.C.E.

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On the right-hand side of the dam, tall Sanduru hill ranges are located extending up to 800 m MSL, close to the periphery of the Tungabhadra reservoir. These hill ranges form the Sanduru valley located above 600 m MSL. This reservoir is an ideal place to install pumped storage hydro power plants and lift irrigation projects. A moderate high level storage reservoir of capacity 20 tmc at FRL 620 m MSL, can be constructed by damming the Sanduru valley. This reservoir will serve as upper pond and existing Tungabhadra reservoir as tail pond for installing Pumped-storage hydroelectricity units. The water pumped during the monsoon months into the upper pond can also be diverted by gravity to irrigate an extensive area in the uplands up to 600m MSL in Rayalaseema and Karnataka. This water can also be pumped further to meet the drinking water requirements of Bangalore city. However, the available water resources at Tungabhadra dam are over-utilized, and water shortages are frequent. Water availability in the reservoir could be augmented by transferring water from the Krishna River, if a link canal were to be constructed from the Almatti / Narayanpur reservoir to Tungabhadra reservoir. This canal would supply Krishna River water to the existing right bank canal of Tungabhadra dam and would also augment water in Tungabhadra reservoir. Envisaging small balancing reservoirs where this link canal is intercepting the tributaries of Tungabhadra River would facilitate water diversion to Tungabhadra reservoir for further augmenting the water availability. When this joint project of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is constructed, nearly 400 tmc water additionally will be available for irrigation and drinking purposes in the high drought risk uplands of Rayalaseema and Karnataka. Two Power Houses are maintained by the Tungabhadra Board, with a total installed capacity of 72.00 MW, and a target of 200.00 million units of power generation is envisaged during the water year 2000-2001. Against this, the power generated up to 31.10.2000 is 132.19 million units. The target for 2001-2002 is 200.00 million units. The power generated is shared between the States of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the ratio of 20:80. *****

Department of Mechanical Engineering, U.V.C.E.