The Prakasam Barrage stretches 1223.5 m across the

Krishna River The Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau is the third-longest in India, after the Ganga, Ganga and Godavari. It is also the fourth-largest in terms of water inflows and river basin area in India, after the Ganga, Indus and Godav ...

connecting

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

and

Guntur Guntur (), natively spelt as Gunturu, is a city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district. The city is part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is lo ...

districts in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. 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 that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

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 popularly known as Prakasam Pantulu (23 August 1872 – 20 May 1957), was an Indian jurist, political leader, social reformer, and anti-colonial nationalist who served as the Premier of the Madras Presidency. Prakasam subseq ...

, the first Chief Minister of

Andhra Andhra Pradesh (ISO: , , AP) is a state on the east coast of southern India. It is the seventh-largest state and the tenth-most populous in the country. Telugu is the most widely spoken language in the state, as well as its official lang ...

(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 of Andhra Pradesh to Parangipettai near Chidambaram of Tamil Nadu. The canal connects most of the natural backw ...

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 Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

, 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 on the

nearly 25 km upstream of Prakasam Barrage. The designed maximum water level is 22.13 m msl whereas the full reservoir level is 17.39 m msl with a scope to enhance the live water storage by increasing the gates height by 4.74 m height to enable the back waters reach the toe of the Pulichinthala Dam at 20 m msl for pumping water into the Pulichinthala reservoir. The maximum flood flow experienced at the barrage was 1.11 million cusecs at 20.97 m msl on 5 October 2009. During the severe floods in September 2024, the peak flood flow reached 1.06 million cusecs at the barrage against the designed flow of 1.19 million cusecs.

Godavari Penna Linking

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prakasam Barrage Barrages in India Buildings and structures in Vijayawada Tourist attractions in Guntur 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 Tourist attractions in Vijayawada

Godavari Penna Linking

See also

References