Ryves Canal is a canal that originates from Krishna river and flows through the city of

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 NT ...

in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

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 ...

. Under the Krishna Eastern canal system, there are three gravity canals, namely the Eluru canal, Ryves canal and Bandar (Machilipatnam) canal were dug during British time, mainly for irrigation and navigation purposes. The Ryves canal has a length of 57.70 km and an

anicut An anicut (Originated from Tamil language அணைக்கட்டு - Aṇaikaṭṭu and Kannada language ಆಣೆಕಟ್ಟು - Āṇekaṭṭu) is a masonry check dam A steel check dam A check dam is a small, sometimes temporary, ...

of 1,75,000 acres with a designed discharge of 4250 cusecs.

History

There was a disastrous famine during 1833 which wiped about 40% of the population in Krishna district. The government under East India Company constructed an anicut and canal system during 1852-55 to irrigate 5.80 lakh acres with an expenditure of Rs 0.772 million. The anicut proposal was formulated and designed by

Sir Arthur Cotton General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 – 24 July 1899) was a British general and irrigation engineer. Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India. He helped many people by b ...

and carried out by Captain Charles Orr. The anicut served for about 100 years and a major breach occurred in September 1952. A new barrage namely

Prakasam barrage The Prakasam Barrage stretches 1223.5 m across the Krishna River connecting Vijayawada, NTR and Mangalagiri Tadepalle Municipal Corporation, Guntur districts in Andhra Pradesh, India. The barrage serves also as a road bridge and spans over a l ...

was constructed during 1952-77 replacing the damaged and breached Krishna anicut. The canal is named after captain Joseph Gore Ryves, a british engineer who worked during construction of Krishna anicut. He was famous for the construction of mullaperiyar dam in Kerala. Initially Ryves canal used to start from 7th mile of Eluru canal. Later it was changed to start from the main canal near the barrage itself.

References

{{Vijayawada topics Geography of Vijayawada Water bodies of Andhra Pradesh