The Prakasam Barrage stretches 1223.5 m across the Krishna River connecting

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 N ...

, NTR and

Mangalagiri Tadepalle Municipal Corporation Mangalagiri Tadepalli Municipal Corporation is the civic body that governs Mangalagiri and Tadepalle city's and villages in the corresponding mandals of the Mangalagiri Assembly constituency in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. It is the seco ...

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. ...

districts in

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The barrage serves also as a road bridge and spans over a lake. The three canals associated with the barrage run through the city of

, crossing it and giving it a Venetian appearance. Prakasam Barage View from Boating area

The idea of constructing a dam across the river Krishna dates back to 1798. It began in the hands of captain Buckle and was revised in 1839 and 1841 by Captain Best and Captain Lake. After the endorsement of Major Cotton, the board of Directors of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

approved it on 5 January 1850. The dam was started in 1852 and completed in 1855. It cost Rs 1.75 crore in those days and seems to have paid the then government a return of 18%. It used to irrigate 7 lakh acres. Later, the State Government constructed a bridge that was named after

Tanguturi Prakasam Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu (23 August 1872 – 20 May 1957) was an Indian jurist, political leader, social reformer, and anti-colonial nationalist who served as the chief minister of the Madras Presidency. Tanguturi subsequently became the fi ...

, the first Chief Minister of

Andhra 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 ...

(a state formed in 1953, which later became Andhra Pradesh in 1956 after the merger of Telugu speaking districts of former Hyderabad State). Completed in 1957, it helps to irrigate over 1.2 million acres of land. This barrage also supplies water to

Buckingham canal The Buckingham Canal is a -long fresh water navigation canal, that parallels the Coromandel Coast of South India from Kakinada City in the Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh to Viluppuram District in Tamil Nadu. The canal connects most ...

which was initially constructed as an

inland navigation Inland navigation, inland barge transport or inland waterway transport (IWT) is a transport system allowing ships and barges to use inland waterways (such as canals, rivers and lakes). These waterways have inland ports, marinas, quays, and wharfs. ...

canal but was later used as an irrigation water supply canal. One of the first major irrigation projects of

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...

, the Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada was completely successful in its mission. File:Night view of Prakasam Barrage.jpg, Night view of Prakasam Barrage File:LR-6085.jpg, Lake side view of Prakasam Barrage File:Prakasam Barrage, Vijayawada 2016 (7).jpg, Prakasam barrage from Krishnaveni idol

largely owes its rich agriculture to the Prakasam Barrage as the project facilitated the irrigation of large tracts of farmland. The Barrage provides views of the lake. It has become a tourist attraction of

. On 13th Feb-2019 Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu laid foundation to construct a new barrage named

Vykuntapuram Barrage Vykuntapuram Barrage is an Indian barrage and water storage project. It is under construction on Krishna River 23 kilometers upstream of existing Prakasam Barrage with FRL 25M. It is designed to store 10 TMC of flood water coming from the ...

on the Krishna River nearly 25 km upstream of Prakasam Barrage.

Godavari Penna Linking

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prakasam Barrage Barrages in India Tourist attractions in Vijayawada Buildings and structures in Vijayawada Tourist attractions in Guntur district Tourist attractions in Krishna district Dams completed in 1855 1855 establishments in India Dams in Andhra Pradesh Buildings and structures in Guntur district Transport in Guntur district Bridges and flyovers in Vijayawada

Godavari Penna Linking

See also

References