CHITRADURGA: In some good news for the residents of Chitradurga district, water level in the Vanivilas Sagar dam — the largest waterbody in Central Karnataka — crossed the 100-foot mark on Wednesday after a gap of nine years. With Wednesday’s milestone, the century-old dam has so far crossed the 100-foot mark 57 times. According to Darshan in-charge engineer of the dam, the water level stood at 100 ft as on 8 am on Wednesday.
Though the inflow into the dam was at the rate of 803 cusecs on December 3, it reduced t0 421 cusecs on Wednesday. Though heavy rain lashed the district during the monsoon, it wasn’t sufficient to push the water level in the dam. However, what helped was the waters of Upper Bhadra Project reaching the dam through the Vedavathi river in October after the blockages enroute were removed.
The dam first crossed the century mark in 1911 (109.66 ft) and reached the maximum level of 132.25 ft in 1933. The last time the water level crossed the 100-foot mark was in 2010 (112.75 ft). The total capacity of the dam is 30 tmcft and the total height of the dam is 130 ft.
The construction of the dam began in 1897 during the rein of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar.