State plans balancing reservoir to offset silt in Tungabhadra dam

Water Resources Minister M B Patil on Wednesday informed the Legislative Council that it would be unscientific to desilt the Tungabhadra dam, which has about 33 tmcft of silt deposition.

Replying to N S Boseraju (Congress), the minister said that a minimum of 66,000 acres would be required to dump the silt from the reservoir.

The Tungabhadra dam, near Hosapete in Ballari district, was constructed 65 years ago. About 0.5 tmcft of silt is getting deposited annually. Desilting should have been planned from the time of construction, he said.

He said that to offset the silt, a balancing reservoir would be constructed in Navali village in Koppal district. The land required would be 18,000 acres and the estimated cost of the proposed reservoir is Rs 5,600 crore. Dryland would be acquired and hence the land acquisition process would not be difficult. The Tungabhadra Board would have to approve the new project, he added.

As per the report card of the department which was released recently, the silt deposition has severely affected water impounding and thus affected irrigation requirement of both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The proposed reservoir in Navali may be designed to hold 35 tmcft of water. The cost sharing by the neighbouring state would be 35%.