The Proposal: For interlinking Krishna with Pennar, three links are envisaged.  Almatti -Pennar is the first link.  This link will divert 1,980 Mcum of water and will provide enroute irrigation to 2.58 lakh hectares (1.76 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh and 0.82 lakh hectares in Karnataka), utilizing 1,714 Mcum of water.   A provision of 56 Mcum has been made towards domestic & industrial requirement enroute.  The quantum of water diverted through this link canal will be made available at Almatti in exchange of the surplus waters of Mahanadi and Godavari basins transferred to Nagarjunasagar from the river Godavari. This link canal will run for a length of 587 km., which includes 5 tunnels of different lengths totaling 35.66 km. 

Engineering Aspect: The link proposes to utilize the Existing Almatti reservoir in Krishna basin, which is a component of the ongoing Upper Krishna Project with a gross storage capacity of 3,440 Mcum at FRL 519.60 m under Stage-II. Along with this ongoing project, one more reservoir at Kalvapalli and the existing tank at Bukkapatnam in Pennar basin are also proposed as the head works required for the link canal.  The total length of the conveyance system is 587 km including 5 tunnels to cross ridges and avoid heavy cutting.  The link canal is proposed to be operated for 180 days from June to November in a year with a designed discharge of 230 cumecs at head.  The canal takes off from Almatti reservoir at FSL 510 m and crosses Tungabhadra and Vedavathi rivers and joins the proposed Kalvapalli reservoir on Pennar river and runs further to join the stream of Maddileru a tributary of Pennar river via existing Bukkapatnam tank.  The diversion is entirely by gravity.

Environmental Issue: The existing Almatti reservoir submerges a total area of 48,787 ha.  About 22 villages with 80,000 populations will be affected due to the project.  Along the canal alignment about 71 ha of forest land will come under submergence for which a compensatory afforestation programme for 142 ha of land have been evolved in order to compensate loss of vegetation.

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