Nagarjuna Sagar Dam
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is a
masonry dam built across
Krishna River in
Nagarjuna Sagar,
Andhra Pradesh,
India. It is also one of the largest manmade lakes in the world. It is one of the earliest irrigation and hydro-electric projects in
India. The dam provides irrigation water to the districts of
Nalgonda,
Prakasam,
Khammam, and
Guntur.
The
Krishna River is one of the longest rivers of India and originates at Mahabaleswar in Maharashtra, passes through Sangli and meets the sea in the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi in Andhra Pradesh. The state of Andhra Prades was unable to effectively utilize river until the mid 20th century due to the absence of a reservoir which could store the water. River floods devastated the villages in the
Krishna district whilst the districts of
Nalgonda,
Guntur etc were unable to utilize the excess water. The proposal to construct a dam to utilize the excess waters of river was put forward by the
British rulers in 1903. Siddeswaram and Pulichintala were identified as the suitable locations for the reservoirs. However, none of these proposals materialized. Based on the reports submitted by the Khosla committee in 1952, the congress government formed under the leadership of
Jawaharlal Nehru decided to construct reservoirs in drought hit areas under the first
five year plan. The state governments were asked to submit a report on the possible locations for such project. After the formation of the Andhra Pradhesh state in 1953 and the submission of a report by the government the foundation stone for the Nagarjuna Sagar dam was laid on 10 Decemeber, 1955. It was named after the buddhist monk
Nagarjuna.
The project started in February 1956 but due to scarcity of funds modern equipment was not available. The project was constructed with stone instead of concrete. A cement factory was constructed near
Macharla to meet the project requirement. A railway line was laid connecting the project location and the cement factory. Stones were supplied from the nearby Sunkesula quaries. Sand was supplied from Rayavaram stream and Halia river. The buddhist monuments and other historical artifacts present in area were safely shifted and preserved in the
Nagarjuna Konda museum. The project was inagurated in 1967 by the then prime minister
Indira Gandhi. The construction of the dam was completed by 1969. The dam came under full utilization from 1972 after fitting the crest gates. Two canals - the left and right canals were constructed to supply water from this reservior. Total expenditure on the project (including maintenance till 2005) is around 1300 crore rupees. The number of workers participating in the project varied from 45,000 to 70,000. Around 174 people died due to accidents during the construction.
|
Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir |
The project benefited farmers in the districts of
Guntur,
Prakasam,
Krishna,
Nalgonda and
Khammam. The right canal (a.k.a Jawahar canal) is 203 km long and irrigates 1.113 million acres of land. The left canal (a.k.a Lalbahadur Shastri canal) is 295 km long and irrigates 1.03 million acres of land. The project transformed the economy of above districts. 52 villages were submersed in water and 24000 people were affected. The relocation of the people was completed by 1967.
*
Article on the dam in The Hindu
