Upper Krishna Irrigation Project
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The Upper Krishna Project (UKP) is an irrigation project across the Krishna River to provide irrigation to the drought-prone areas of
Vijayapura district, Karnataka Bijapur district, officially known as Vijayapura district, is a district in the state of Karnataka in India. The city of Bijapur is the headquarters of the district, and is located 530 km northwest of Bangalore. Bijapur is well known for the ...
,
Bagalkot Bagalakote, is a city in the state of Karnataka, India, which is also the headquarters of Bagalakote district. It is situated on branch of River Ghataprabha about 481 km (299 mi) northwest of state capital Bengaluru, 410 km (2 ...
, Kalburgi, Yadgir and Raichur districts in the state of Karnataka in south India. The project had been designed by the Government of Karnataka to irrigate 1,536,000 acres of land (6,220 km2).


Overview

The foundation stone for the project was laid by the then Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on 22 May 1964. It was designed to irrigate 1,536,000 acres of land in Gulbarga, Raichur, Bijapur, Bagalkot and now Yadgir. UKP intends to use the bulk of 173 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water allocated to the state of Karnataka by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal, headed by
R. S. Bachawat Tribunal R. or r. may refer to: * ''Reign'', the period of time during which an Emperor, king, queen, etc., is ruler. * '' Rex'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning King * ''Regina'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning Queen * or , abbreviat ...
, in May 1976. The initial estimation of the cost of the project was ; however, after many revisions, the final cost of the project reached , and it took 42 years for the project to be completed. 201 villages were affected by the project and 136 villages were completely submerged in the backwaters of the reservoirs constructed as a part of the project.


UKP-Stage I

Stage I of the UKP plans to use 119 tmcft of water and irrigate 4250 km2 of land on the left bank of the Krishna River. It involves construction of
Almatti Dam The Lal Bahadur Shastri Dam is also known as Almatti Dam is a hydroelectric project on the Krishna River in North Karnataka, India which was completed in July 2005. The target annual electric output of the dam is 560 MU (or GWh). The Almatti ...
and
Narayanpur Dam Basava Sagar Dam, previously known as Narayanpura Dam, is a dam constructed across the Krishna River at Yadgir District, Karnataka State, India. The reservoir that it impounds is known as Basava Sagar, and has a total storage capacity of 37.96 ...
along with several other canals.


UKP-Stage II

Stage II of the UKP plans to use 54 tmcft of water and irrigate 1971.20 km2 of land. It involves irrigation on the right bank of the river by the flow and also by lifting the waters to higher levels on both left and right banks. The project mainly involved construction of channels. Hipparagi barrage This project also includes construction of Hipparagi barrage (near ) in the upstream of Almatti dam with maximum water level and FRL at 531.4 m MSL and barrage crest level at 516.635 m MSL in Athani taluq of Belagavi district. Hipparagi barrage with 4.9 tmcft live storage capacity supplies irrigation water to nearly 60,000 acres by Ainapur and
Halyal Halyal is a village in Belgaum district in the southern state of Karnataka, India. It is located north of Belgaum, from Athani, and from the state capital of Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and ...
lift canals.


UKP-Stage III

The Karnataka government on 3 December 2011 unveiled a five-year action plan to fully use its share of water in the Krishna River basin. Stage III of UKP would use 130 tmcft of water. The Karnataka government would be spending to complete the third stage of the project. Stage III consists of increasing the full reservoir water level of Alamatti Dam to and this would require the relocation of 30 villages. One lakh acres (405 km2) of land would be submerged. UKP stage III would involve lift irrigation schemes at Mulwad, Chimmalagi, and Indi and extension of the Narayanapura Right Bank Canal and Bhima diversion plan. Stage III would also involve the extension of lift irrigation schemes at Rampur, Mallabad, Koppal and Herakal.


Major benefits

The major beneficiary of the project would be Kalaburagi district with around 950,000 acres of land coming under irrigation. A
hydel power Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a wa ...
generation plant of installed capacity of 297 MW has been contemplated at Almatti, which it is estimated would generate about 672 million units annually. This work has been assigned to KPCL, a Karnataka Government company. It is expected to increase the production of food grains and cash crops in the command area of the UKP, adding to the country's economy annually and stimulating prosperity and growth in the otherwise drought-prone and economically backward districts of the north eastern part of Karnataka. The project is also intended to provide drinking water to 18 urban and several rural centres.


Major difficulties


Financial

Delays and the level of cost over-runs lead to charges of cronyism and corruption. A first information report (FIR) was filed by police on 26 Oct 2011 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in awarding the contracts to the tune of in the project during 1995–1998. The FIR filed did not name anyone. Former prime minister
H. D. Deve Gowda Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (; born 18 May 1933 in) is an Indian politician from the state of Karnataka. He served as the 11th prime minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karn ...
after becoming the Prime Minister of India, amended the rule to release the funds for water projects of the states and released 700 cr to the state of Karnataka which not only helped Karnataka, but all states for their water projects. Even though several CM's came and went but not finished this project since 15 years. Totally dam work started 45 years back but not completed till today. Due to this Karnataka Government lost huge agricultural income and loss to ex-chequer.


Maintenance

Lack of proper maintenance has been a recurring concern, especially after disasters such as the collapse of a main gate at the
Narayanpur Dam Basava Sagar Dam, previously known as Narayanpura Dam, is a dam constructed across the Krishna River at Yadgir District, Karnataka State, India. The reservoir that it impounds is known as Basava Sagar, and has a total storage capacity of 37.96 ...
.


Human

Human costs included the large number of displaced persons and the loss of ''community''. Thousands of farmers lost their land due to this project, farmers land was sunk into backwater as well as dam water and became stranded. Huge i.e. more than 60sq.km land was submerged in Almatti Dam water, citizens lost their homes, homeland and farmland and society because of this project. Nearly 3000 villages sunk under dam water have now become displaced, stranded and spread out in Karnataka and surrounding states. Citizens and citizen farmers sacrificed their life, land and society.


See also

*
S. G. Balekundri Shivappa Gurubasappa Balekundri (Kannada:ಶಿವಪ್ಪ ಗುರುಬಸಪ್ಪ ಬಾಳೇಕುಂದ್ರಿ, 5 May 1922, date of death unknown), often referred to as S. G. Balekundri, was an Indian Engineer irrigation expert from Kar ...


References

{{reflist Economy of Karnataka Irrigation in India Economy of Maharashtra Krishna River