From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Mar 2: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa held a discussion with officials and elected representatives of Ballari, Vijayanagara and Raichuru districts on building a balancing reservoir near Navali village to improve the storage position of the Tungabhadra dam.

Deputy Chief Minister Lakshman Savadi, Home and Law Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarakiholi and officials of the Water Resources Department participated in the meeting.

Karnataka proposes to build the balancing reservoir along the Tungabhadra river at Navali village in order to meet the drinking water and irrigation needs of the districts besides ensuring that the State did not lose out on its share of the water in the Tungabhadra dam as the accumulated silt had reduced the storage level of the dam.

The storage capacity of the Tungabhadra reservoir is 134.7 tmcft of water. But the storage level had come down due to accumulated silt since its construction in 1953 and the storage capacity had been reduced to 31 tmcft.

The balancing reservoir at Navali is expected to cost over Rs 5,600 crore.