In what may be a rare move, sources say that the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments have reportedly decided to forge a common front and oppose Karnataka’s latest proposal to build another major reservoir across the Tungabhadra River, upstream from the current Tungabhadra Dam near Hospet, Bellary district.
Karnataka’s major irrigation minister M B Patil had recently announced the construction of a new dam with a capacity of 35 TMC ft in Haveri district that compensates the loss of storage in the Hospet Dam as result of sedimentation over the years.
The Tungabhadra Dam was constructed in 1953, with a storage capacity of 130 TMC ft but now capacity is only 100 TMC ft and the critical proposal is to divert water from Alamatti by excavating canals that diverts floodwaters to Tungabhadra.
The Tungabhadra Dam is an inter-state project that was built by then Hyderabad State and Madras Presidency. Both AP and TS Irrigation ministers say that they will not tolerate these new proposals and fight unitedly.
