The Prakasam Barrage stretches 1223.5 m across the Krishna River connecting

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...

, NTR and Mangalagiri Tadepalle Municipal Corporation,

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. It is situated to the west of the ...

districts in

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 t ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. The barrage serves also as a road bridge and spans over a lake. The three canals associated with the barrage run through the city of

, crossing it and giving it a Venetian appearance. Prakasam Barage View from Boating area

The idea of constructing a dam across the river Krishna dates back to 1798. It began in the hands of captain Buckle and was revised in 1839 and 1841 by Captain Best and Captain Lake. After the endorsement of Major Cotton, the board of Directors of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

approved it on 5 January 1850. The dam was started in 1852 and completed in 1855. It cost Rs 1.75 crore in those days and seems to have paid the then government a return of 18%. It used to irrigate 7 lakh acres. Later, the State Government constructed a bridge that was named after Tanguturi Prakasam, the first Chief Minister of Andhra (a state formed in 1953, which later became Andhra Pradesh in 1956 after the merger of Telugu speaking districts of former Hyderabad State). Completed in 1957, it helps to irrigate over 1.2 million acres of land. This barrage also supplies water to Buckingham canal which was initially constructed as an

inland navigation Inland navigation, inland barge transport or inland waterway transport (IWT) is a transport system allowing ships and barges to use inland waterways (such as canals, rivers and lakes). These waterways have inland ports, marinas, quays, and w ...

canal but was later used as an irrigation water supply canal. One of the first major irrigation projects of

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...

, the Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada was completely successful in its mission. File:Night view of Prakasam Barrage.jpg, Night view of Prakasam Barrage File:LR-6085.jpg, Lake side view of Prakasam Barrage File:Prakasam Barrage, Vijayawada 2016 (7).jpg, Prakasam barrage from Krishnaveni idol

largely owes its rich agriculture to the Prakasam Barrage as the project facilitated the irrigation of large tracts of farmland. The Barrage provides views of the lake. It has become a tourist attraction of

. On 13th Feb-2019 Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu laid foundation to construct a new barrage named Vykuntapuram Barrage on the Krishna River nearly 25 km upstream of Prakasam Barrage.

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prakasam Barrage Barrages in India Tourist attractions in Vijayawada Buildings and structures in Vijayawada Tourist attractions in Guntur district Tourist attractions in Krishna district Dams completed in 1855 1855 establishments in India Dams in Andhra Pradesh Buildings and structures in Guntur district Transport in Guntur district Bridges and flyovers in Vijayawada

Godavari Penna Linking

See also

References