New Crest Gates for Tungabhadra reservoir within a year: DCM DK Shivakumar

Hosapete: Deputy Chief Minister and Irrigation Minister DK Shivakumar on Sunday announced the installation of new crest gates for the Tungabhadra reservoir within a year.

Addressing a public function at the Munirabad Government Primary School premises after offering Bagina at Tungabhadra reservoir, he said, “New crest gates would be installed for Tungabhadra after consulting with Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tungabhadra Board. The new crest gates would use latest technology and protest the interests of farmers.”

“On August 10, district in-charge minister and MD informed me about the damage to Crest Gate 19. Assuring them of immediate action, I visited the site the very next morning and held meetings with technicians and engineers. A little later, we instructed some of the vendors to manufacture crest gate,” he recalled the incident that sent shockwaves among the farming community in the region.

“It is our privilege that Chief Minister and I got this opportunity to serve the farmers. Engineer Kannaiah Naidu helped us save more than 20 TMC of water by erecting crest gate on war footing. It saved crops in 9 lakh acres. Narayana Engineering, Jindal and Hindustan Engineering companies also helped in this. The whole country was looking at this incident, it was a great achievement to fix it in such a short time,” he praised the engineers and technicians who was instrumental in fixing the damaged crest gate.

“We are planning to build the Navali balancing reservoir. A DPR is ready and about 15,000 acres of land is needed for the project. We are not able to utilize 33 TMC of water from Tungabhadra due to silting and Navali is the solution for this. I will meet the Chief Ministers and Irrigation Ministers of neighbouring states soon and discuss the project,” he said.

“There is a saying that bathing in Ganga and drinking water from Tunga are auspicious, highlighting the importance of Tunga river. The dam is full once again after the broken crest gate, thanks to blessings of Sringeri Sharade and Virupaksha of Hampi,” he noted.

“Tungabhadra dam is the contribution of Congress party and no one can twist the history. Nehru had said that dams are the temples of modern India. Some time back we had started Tunga aarti, and now we have decided to start Cauvery aarti. We have formed a team and it is studying Haridwara, Kashi and a few other places,” he said.

“There were a lot of criticism when the crest gate was broken, but the Chief minister and I did not lose heart. We fixed it in record time. Good work lives on while criticism dies. The efforts of engineers, technicians, staff is commendable,” he said.

“Congress party is grateful to the people of the region for stupendous victory in the Lok Sabha elections. We will work towards repaying that debt. Congress party will offer Bagina to Tungabhadra for the next 10 years. Chief Minister and I have offered Bagina to four main reservoirs in the State due to good rains,” he added.