A 70-year-old system under stress

The Tungabhadra dam, an inter-State task involving Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, was commissioned successful the aboriginal 1950s, portion the crest gates were installed successful 1955. The task irrigates implicit 16.38 lakh acres of onshore – 9.26 lakh acres successful Karnataka, 6.25 lakh acres successful Andhra Pradesh and 87,000 acres successful Telangana.

At the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 1,633 feet, the Tungabhadra Reservoir was primitively designed to store astir 133 tmcft of water. However, decades of dense silt accumulation, estimated astatine astir 33 tmcft astatine the complaint of astir 0.5 tmcft annually, person reduced its effectual retention capableness to 105.788 tmcft. The spillway is designed to discharge up to 6.5 lakh cusecs.