Polavaram Project

Polavaram Project is a multi-purpose irrigation project. The dam across the Godavari River is under construction located in West Godavari District and East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh state and its reservoir spreads in parts of Chhattisgarh and Orissa States also.

• The project is multipurpose major terminal reservoir project on river Godavari for development of Irrigation, Hydropower and drinking water facilities to East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, West Godavari and Krishna districts of Andhra Pradesh.
• The Polavaram project was accorded national status in 2014 in the Andhra Pradesh Bifurcation Act and its design was changed.

Objectives of Polavaram Project

• The Project envisages construction of Earth-cum-Rock fill dam across river Godavari. 
• This project will supply 23.4TMC of drinking water to Visakhapatnam city and also to Vizag steel plant through its left canal

• It will also facilitate an inter-basin transfer of 80TMC annually to the Krishna river basin through its Right canal. 
• It will also provide indirect benefits such as development of Pisciculture, tourism and urbanisation.

Land used for the project: A total of 17,800 acres of land – 6,600 acres of forestland and 11,200 acres of revenue land – spread across 127 villages in four constituencies of West Godavari district – Polavaram, Chintalapudi, Gopalavaram and Denduluru – is being acquired for the project 

Features:

The Project envisages construction of Earth-cum-Rock fill dam across river Godavari.

The maximum height of the dam is 48 m.

Benefits to Other States 

• Odisha and Chhattisgarh shall be benefitted with 5 TMC & 1.5 TMC of irrigation water respectively
• Odisha and Chhattisgarh can develop & exploit pisciculture and boating facilities in their own territories
• 80 TMC of water in Krishna river shall be saved on account of diversion of equal amount from river Godavari.
• The water saved in river Krishna shall be shared between Andhra (45 TMC), Karnataka (21 TMC) & Maharashtra (14 TMC

Significance for Andhra Pradesh: It will irrigate nearly 3 lakh ha of land, generate hydel power with installed capacity of 960 MW and provide drinking water facilities to 540 enroute villages covering 25 lakh populations.

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