Velugodu Reservoir is a balancing reservoir and located across the Galeru river, a tributary of

Kundu River The Kundu River also known as ''Kunderu'', ''Kumudvathi'' is a tributary of the Penna River in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Originating as a spring near the village of Uppalapadu in Orvakal Mandal of Kurnool District, it go ...

Penner River Penna (also known as Pinakini, Pennar, Penner, Penneru (Telugu), Pennai (Tamil)) is a river of southern India. This is a unique river in world where after originating from Nandi hills, it flows as two different streams, one in North and South ...

basin, at Velugodu town in

Nandyal district Nandyal district is a district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.Nandyal as its administrative headquarters, it was formed on 4 April 2022 to become one of the resultant twenty-six districts and one of the district in Rayalaseema region ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. This reservoir is part of

Telugu Ganga project The Telugu Ganga project is a joint water supply scheme implemented in 1980s by the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister N.T.Ramarao and Tamilnadu Chief minister M. G. Ramachandran to provide drinking water to Chennai city in Tamil Nadu. It is als ...

and mainly fed by gravity canal from back waters of

Srisailam Dam The Srisailam Dam is constructed across the Krishna River in Nagarkurnool district , Telangana and Nandyal district, Andhra Pradesh near Srisailam temple town and is the 2nd largest capacity working hydroelectric station in India. The d ...

through Pothireddypadu head / flow regulator located across the feeder canal. Velugodu Reservoir has gross storage capacity of 16.95

Tmcft Tmcft, (Tmc ft), (TMC), (tmc), is the abbreviation of thousand million cubic feet (1,000,000,000 = 109 = 1 billion), commonly used in India in reference to volume of water in a reservoir or river flow. Conversion 1 tmcft is equivalent to: * ( ...

at 265 m MSL full reservoir level. This feeder canal called Srisailam right main canal (SRMC) also supplies water to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

city drinking water, Srisailam Right Bank Canal,

K. C. Canal Kurnool Cuddappah Canal popularly known as K.C. Canal is an irrigation canal located in Kurnool and Kadapa districts in Andhra Pradesh, India. History The K.C.Canal was constructed between 1863 and 1870 as an irrigation and navigation canal. Thi ...

and Galeru Nagari Canal in addition to divert the Krishna river flood water to Penna river for storage in

Somasila Somasila is a small village in Nagar Kurnool, Telangana,India. History It is known for the Sri Lalitha Someswara Swamy Temple. It is believed to have been built during the 7th century. Lord Shiva is the presiding deity here. Mahashivaratri a ...

and Kandaleru reservoirs situated in Nellore district. The maximum flow capacity of the canal is 44,000 cusecs at full supply level of MSL The sill/crest level of the SRMC at its starting point or Pothireddypadu head regulator is MSL. As the canal water flow by gravity is not satisfactory when the Srisailam reservoir water level is below , a pump house to transfer 33,000 cusecs into the canal from the water level of the Srisailam reservoir is taken up on urgent basis.

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh issues

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

govt claims that Pothireddypadu head regulator, which has approval for 1500 cusecs originally, was modified over the years illegally in united

to increase the capacity to 80,000cusecs.

state claims that Srisailam project is not an irrigation project and was designed for electricity generation; there are allocations of only 15TMC for Chennai drinking water to be taken thru Pothireddypadu; but in year 2020,

(AP) govt diverted 179TMC of water from Krishna river to

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

region of AP which is in Penna basin. Also Telangana govt complains that AP govt is planning to increase lift the water from 800ft level(currently it can take water only if water level is 840ft or higher) with which AP can divert even more water in future. Grievances over irrigation water was one of the main reasons for

Telangana movement The Telangana movement refers to a movement for the creation of a separate state, Telangana, from the pre-existing state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The new state corresponds to the Telugu-speaking portions of the erstwhile princely state of Hy ...

which led to carving out Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

References

{{Penna basin , state=expanded Reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh Krishna River Geography of Kurnool district Year of establishment missing