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Tungabhadra Dam
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Tungabhadra Dam
The Tungabhadra Dam, also known as Pampa Sagar, is a water reservoir constructed across the Tungabhadra River in the Hosapete-Koppal confluence in Karnataka, India. It is a multipurpose dam serving irrigation, electricity generation, flood control, etc. for the state. It is India's largest stone masonry dam and one of the only two[citation needed] non-cement dams in the country, the other being the Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala. The dam is built of surki mortar, a combination of mud and limestone, commonly used at the time of its construction.
The dam was a joint project undertaken in 1949 by the erstwhile Kingdom of Hyderabad and Madras Presidency when the construction began; later, after India's constitution into a republic in 1950, it became a joint project between the governments of Madras and Hyderabad states. The construction was completed in 1953. The Tungabhadra Dam has withstood the test of time for over 70 years and is expected to well cross many more decades.
The chief architects of the dam were Vepa Krishnamurthy and Pallimalli Papaiah of Hyderabad and M. S. Tirumale Iyengar of Madras. They envisioned it as being built with a large contingent of material and manual labour, as best suited to Indian labour availability and employment at that time. The chief contractor for the dam was Venkat Reddy Mulamalla from Konour, a village in Mahabubnagar, Telangana. The northern canal on the Hyderabad side (now Telangana) takes off from the combined irrigation and power sluices. The first 19 miles of the canal is in a rugged terrain cutting through three ranges of hills and is held up by three reservoirs at miles 8, 14 and 16 respectively. The canal negotiates the last range of hills by means of a tunnel, named as Papaiah Tunnel, and enters open country.
The famine-ridden region of Rayalseema, then comprising the districts of Bellary, Anantapur, Kurnool and Cuddapah, attracted the attention of British engineers as early as 1860. To relieve the intensity of famines in these districts, proposals were made in 1860 to utilise the waters of the Tungabhadra through a storage reservoir and a system of canals to provide irrigation for the lands. Several agreements were reached for harvesting and imposing restrictions on utilising the Tungabhadra waters. Protracted negotiations and investigations lasted for about eighty years.
In 1860, Sir Arthur Cotton of Madras Presidency originally conceived the Tungabhadra project. His proposals were further modified and developed subsequently, evolving it into a joint scheme with the Kingdom of Hyderabad. N. Paramseswaran Pillai accordingly revised the scheme in 1933. In 1940, Madras ordered a detailed investigation of the scheme. Based on the agreements made, an examination of a number of alternatives was conducted by L. Venkata Krishna Iyer, the then Superintending Engineer, Bellary, and F. M. Dowley, Chief Engineer, both from the kingdom, Between 1942 and 1947 further detailed investigations of the project were done by Mr. Pallimalli Papaiah (Chief Engineer- Hyderabad state) and M. S. Thirumale Iyengar (Chief Engineer) from the Madras presidency. The report thus submitted was accepted by the Government of Madras with certain modifications fixing the sill level at RL 1550 ft. The June 1944 agreement between Madras and Hyderabad enabled the two governments to finally begin the construction of the Tungabhadra project.
The Tungabhadra Project was formally inaugurated by laying foundation stones on 28 February 1945 by Nawab Azam Jah, the Prince of Berar, on the left side of the dam and by the Baron Sir Arthur Hope, Governor of Madras, on the right. However, owing to India's freedom in 1947, the explosive political unrest in Hyderabad in 1948, and due to differences of opinion in certain technical matters, much headway could not be made until January 1949. Madras and Hyderabad engineers were sharply divided on:
These differences were referred to a board of engineers chaired by Sir M. Visveswaraya, the former prime minister of the Kingdom of Mysore and the chief architect of the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in Mysore.
Excavation of the riverbed started in 1947 and masonry construction on 15 April 1949. With the help of a cofferdam constructed earlier, the foundation excavation was continued even during the floods season. The riverbed portion was tackled during the summer of 1950 (1949–50). Masonry in the riverbed blocks started in the 1951, followed by vigorous progress.
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Tungabhadra Dam
The Tungabhadra Dam, also known as Pampa Sagar, is a water reservoir constructed across the Tungabhadra River in the Hosapete-Koppal confluence in Karnataka, India. It is a multipurpose dam serving irrigation, electricity generation, flood control, etc. for the state. It is India's largest stone masonry dam and one of the only two[citation needed] non-cement dams in the country, the other being the Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala. The dam is built of surki mortar, a combination of mud and limestone, commonly used at the time of its construction.
The dam was a joint project undertaken in 1949 by the erstwhile Kingdom of Hyderabad and Madras Presidency when the construction began; later, after India's constitution into a republic in 1950, it became a joint project between the governments of Madras and Hyderabad states. The construction was completed in 1953. The Tungabhadra Dam has withstood the test of time for over 70 years and is expected to well cross many more decades.
The chief architects of the dam were Vepa Krishnamurthy and Pallimalli Papaiah of Hyderabad and M. S. Tirumale Iyengar of Madras. They envisioned it as being built with a large contingent of material and manual labour, as best suited to Indian labour availability and employment at that time. The chief contractor for the dam was Venkat Reddy Mulamalla from Konour, a village in Mahabubnagar, Telangana. The northern canal on the Hyderabad side (now Telangana) takes off from the combined irrigation and power sluices. The first 19 miles of the canal is in a rugged terrain cutting through three ranges of hills and is held up by three reservoirs at miles 8, 14 and 16 respectively. The canal negotiates the last range of hills by means of a tunnel, named as Papaiah Tunnel, and enters open country.
The famine-ridden region of Rayalseema, then comprising the districts of Bellary, Anantapur, Kurnool and Cuddapah, attracted the attention of British engineers as early as 1860. To relieve the intensity of famines in these districts, proposals were made in 1860 to utilise the waters of the Tungabhadra through a storage reservoir and a system of canals to provide irrigation for the lands. Several agreements were reached for harvesting and imposing restrictions on utilising the Tungabhadra waters. Protracted negotiations and investigations lasted for about eighty years.
In 1860, Sir Arthur Cotton of Madras Presidency originally conceived the Tungabhadra project. His proposals were further modified and developed subsequently, evolving it into a joint scheme with the Kingdom of Hyderabad. N. Paramseswaran Pillai accordingly revised the scheme in 1933. In 1940, Madras ordered a detailed investigation of the scheme. Based on the agreements made, an examination of a number of alternatives was conducted by L. Venkata Krishna Iyer, the then Superintending Engineer, Bellary, and F. M. Dowley, Chief Engineer, both from the kingdom, Between 1942 and 1947 further detailed investigations of the project were done by Mr. Pallimalli Papaiah (Chief Engineer- Hyderabad state) and M. S. Thirumale Iyengar (Chief Engineer) from the Madras presidency. The report thus submitted was accepted by the Government of Madras with certain modifications fixing the sill level at RL 1550 ft. The June 1944 agreement between Madras and Hyderabad enabled the two governments to finally begin the construction of the Tungabhadra project.
The Tungabhadra Project was formally inaugurated by laying foundation stones on 28 February 1945 by Nawab Azam Jah, the Prince of Berar, on the left side of the dam and by the Baron Sir Arthur Hope, Governor of Madras, on the right. However, owing to India's freedom in 1947, the explosive political unrest in Hyderabad in 1948, and due to differences of opinion in certain technical matters, much headway could not be made until January 1949. Madras and Hyderabad engineers were sharply divided on:
These differences were referred to a board of engineers chaired by Sir M. Visveswaraya, the former prime minister of the Kingdom of Mysore and the chief architect of the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in Mysore.
Excavation of the riverbed started in 1947 and masonry construction on 15 April 1949. With the help of a cofferdam constructed earlier, the foundation excavation was continued even during the floods season. The riverbed portion was tackled during the summer of 1950 (1949–50). Masonry in the riverbed blocks started in the 1951, followed by vigorous progress.
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