Almatti dam is ready, farmers delighted

almatti (bijapur): "at last, there is light at the end of the tunnel," a farmer of hunnoor village in bijapur district exclaimed, summing up the feelings of his fellow farmers of the entire north karnataka region with the almatti dam having been completed. for 36 years they were given assurances of the dam greening their fields and also providing drinking water.but lack of political will resulted in their hopes remaining a distant dream. "it has been a long wait. but it was worth it," ramanagouda sanganagouda patil, a farmer said. the main storage dam at almatti in basavanabagewadi taluk of bijapur district which has been completed after 36 years of conception is the crucial of all the 12 projects under krishna basin. about 4.25 lakh hectares of land is to be irrigated under stage one. there are 22 german-made hydraulic sluice gates each with a motorised zoom lens camera to monitor the water flow. a computerised main control tower operates the gates and cameras. the length of the dam is 1.50 km and water can be stored upto 516 metres. chief engineer irrigation (north zone) m.s. malagar said : "the most challenging work was 750 metre horse-shoe shaped dasanal tunnel in the ghataprabha right bank canal (grbc) which is dug amidst rocky terrain. the grbc, which runs for about 202 km, has an irrigation potential of 2.96 lakh acres in parts of bijapur, belgaum and bagalkot districts." the other projects which were pending for long since the 70s are nearing completion are markandeya (belgaum district) and maskinala (raichur district). to demonstrate the government's transparency in execution of works, a minister from andhra pradesh, who had bagged a contract for the markandeya project lost for sub-standard work. the upper tunga project spread across three districts of shimoga, davanagere which was conceived in 1989, envisages construction of a dam across tunga river. it will irrigate 2.34 lakh acres of the three districts.