Tungabhadra Dam
Tungabhadra Dam
Tungabhadra Dam
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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. *****