Tungabhadra is a tributary of the Krishna river which originates from the Sahyadri hills of Chikmagalur (1892 m) and flowing through Shimoga, Dharwad, Bellary and Raichur districts of Karnataka it joins the Krishna river near Kurnool city.

In its upper reaches the annual rainfall is 425 cm which goes down to 50 cm in its lower reaches. The com­mand area of the river is characterised by frequent floods and droughts. Tungabhadra project is a joint undertaking of the Governments of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to harness the river water for irriga­tion, power generation, and flood control and drought mitigation.

Tungabhadra Dam-it is a 2,441 m long and 49.39 m high dam across the Tungabhadra River at Mallapuram (5 km away from Hospet) in Bellary district of Karnataka. It has been built by cement and granite. Left of it two barrages have been con­structed (one earthen and another of stone and surkhi). The reservoir spreads over 378 sq. km. of area with storage capacity of 4 lakh hectares.

Power houses-three power houses have been constructed under the project. First of these lies on the left side at Munirabad (Karnataka) with installed capacity of 27 mw. The second power house at Hospet has eight generating units of 9 m w each (total capacity 72 mw). Third power house has been built near Hampi along the canal with installed capacity of 27 mw. This total 126 mw of electricity is utilised in irrigation and development of small and cottage industries.

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Canal Systems-three canal systems origi­nate from the Tungabhadra barrage, (a) The Left Bank Canal is called Tungabhadra Canal. It is 340 km long and irrigates about 3.32 lakh hectares of land in Raichur and Mahbubnagar districts; (b) Tungabhadra Low Level Canal originates from the right side of the dam. It is 347 km long and irrigates about 60,000 ha of land in Bellary and Kurnool districts; (c) Tungabhadra High Level Canal with 196 km length provides irrigation to 1.82 lakh hec­tares of land in Bellary and Anantapur districts. Tungabhadra project is mainly an irrigation project which has helped in augmenting the area under cotton, groundnut, rice, sugarcane, jowar and other crops.