| Tungabhadra Dam | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location of Tungabhadra Dam in Karnataka  Tungabhadra Dam (India) | |
| Official name | Tungabhadra Dam |
| Location | Hospete , Vijayanagara district, Karnataka, Munirabad, Koppal district, Karnataka, India |
| Construction began | 1949 |
| Opening date | 1953 |
| Construction cost | 1,066,342 Dollars |
| Owner(s) | Karnataka State |
| Operator(s) | Tungabhadra Board |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Composite, Spillway length (701 m) |
| Impounds | Tungabhadra River |
| Height | 49.50 m (162 ft) from the deepest foundation. |
| Length | 2,449 m (8,035 ft) |
| Spillway capacity | 650,000 cusecs |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Tungabhadra Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 3.73 cubic kms (132 tmcft) |
| Active capacity | 3.31 cubic kms (116.86 tmcft) |
| Inactive capacity | 2.3 tmcft (below 477.01 m msl) |
| Catchment area | 28,180 km2 (10,880 sq mi) |
| Surface area | 350 km2 (140 sq mi) |
| Power Station | |
| Operator(s) | Karnataka Govt |
| Turbines | Near toe of the dam and canal drops |
| Installed capacity | 127MW |
| Website www.tbboard.gov.in | |
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 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;[1] 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 Tirumala 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.