AP Rivers, Dams and Irrigation Projects Notes for APPSC & SI

Questions on Andhra Pradesh irrigation projects usually test one of three things: which river a project sits on, what kind of structure it is, and whether a claim about its status is actually proven. Candidates who memorise a long list of project names often fail on all three. A better method is to use a four-field card for every project: basin, site, function and date. These notes apply that method to the projects that appear most often in APPSC and AP Police papers, and this October 2026 revision adds official figures from the Krishna River Management Board, the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Central Water Commission.

For the full treatment, with maps, a ten-pair drill and 60 explained practice questions, see the study book AP Rivers, Dams and Irrigation Projects. For the basin-level background, read the sibling post on AP geography: rivers, districts and ports. A Telugu version of this post is available at AP నదులు, ఆనకట్టలు, నీటిపారుదల ప్రాజెక్టుల నోట్స్.

Date-sensitive material: reservoir levels, completion status and delivery figures change. Treat the pairs below as stable facts and check current official sources, such as the state water-resources information system and the Krishna and Godavari board bulletins, for anything live. Dated figures carry an "as on" label.

1. The five river systems and their anchor projects

Several AP rivers run from interior highlands toward the Bay of Bengal. The northeast has shorter systems; the Godavari and Krishna cross state boundaries before forming deltas; the Penna drains the drier south. Learn these ten river-project pairs and you cover most of the direct questions.

River	Project	Type of structure
Vamsadhara	Gotta Barrage	Barrage, Srikakulam side
Nagavali	Thotapalli	Barrage, Parvathipuram Manyam side
Godavari	Polavaram	National project, upstream of the delta
Godavari	Dowleswaram (Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage)	Delta diversion barrage near Rajamahendravaram
Krishna	Srisailam	Major storage reservoir in a gorge
Krishna	Nagarjuna Sagar	Major storage and irrigation project, downstream of Srisailam
Krishna	Pulichintala	Between Nagarjuna Sagar and Prakasam Barrage
Krishna	Prakasam Barrage	Delta diversion at Vijayawada
Penna	Somasila	Storage reservoir, Nellore region
Penna system	Kandaleru	Reservoir in the southern transfer network

Gotta and Thotapalli are the classic elimination pair. They sit close together in the northeast revision cluster, but Gotta belongs to Vamsadhara and Thotapalli to Nagavali. Always settle the river first. Both rivers rise in the Kalahandi district of Odisha (Central Water Commission basin summary), so each is an inter-state river and each carries an inter-state water-sharing story. The CWC gives the Vamsadhara a length of about 254 km and a catchment of about 10,830 sq km, and the Nagavali about 256 km and about 9,510 sq km, with about 95 km of the Nagavali inside Andhra Pradesh.

2. The northeast: Vamsadhara and Nagavali projects

The Vamsadhara joins the sea at Kalingapatnam. Andhra Pradesh uses its share through the Gotta barrage and reservoir near Srikakulam district's upland, and the long-planned Neradi barrage lower down. Press reports in July 2026 say the state sanctioned about 641 crore rupees for the Neradi barrage after inter-state issues with Odisha were addressed, so a question about Neradi should be treated as a project-status question, not a completed-structure question. Another Vamsadhara storage idea, the Hiramandalam reservoir, is a different structure from the Gotta barrage, and the Vamsadhara water dispute tribunal under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act is a legal matter, not a construction one.

The Nagavali is a different basin. Thotapalli barrage, named after a freedom fighter, stands on it in the Parvathipuram Manyam area. Wikipedia, used here as a cross-check, reports construction from 2003 to 2015 and an ayacut of about 1.2 lakh acres across three districts of the older map. The Madduvalasa reservoir is another Nagavali-side project, and a Jhanjhavati rubber dam is reported on one of the Nagavali's tributaries. If an option puts Thotapalli on the Vamsadhara or Gotta on the Nagavali, it is a deliberate swap, and the fix is to name the river before anything else.

3. Godavari: Polavaram, Dowleswaram and the delta

Read the Godavari from upstream to downstream. Polavaram lies upstream of the delta; Dowleswaram near Rajamahendravaram diverts water into the delta canals. They are not two names for one thing.

• Polavaram: Section 90 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 treats it as a national project. The Ministry of Jal Shakti's project note lists irrigation to about 2.91 lakh hectares of culturable command, hydropower of 960 MW, about 23.44 TMC of drinking and industrial water for the Visakhapatnam township and steel plant, and a diversion of about 80 TMC to the Krishna. The same note, as reported in Press Information Bureau replies, gives a revised cost estimate of about 30,436 crore rupees and additional central assistance of about 12,157 crore rupees. Wikipedia, as a cross-check, lists a spillway of about 1,128 m with 48 radial gates and 12 generating units of 80 MW each. Its canals, transfers, power and rehabilitation components should be kept separate in any status question.
• Left and right routes: Polavaram's right-side route is discussed in connection with the Krishna system, while the left-side route serves eastern and northeastern corridors. These are planned distribution paths, and exact command areas come from dated official reports.
• Polavaram the district: a separate administrative fact. The district was formed with effect from 31 December 2025 with headquarters at Rampachodavaram, and it is not evidence that the project is complete.
• Dowleswaram: a delta diversion barrage, sometimes spelled Dowlaiswaram in older sources. Built in the nineteenth century under Arthur Cotton, it was rebuilt in the twentieth century and is officially the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage; the Kakinada district portal lists it among the district's major irrigation structures. It regulates and diverts flow; it does not create a new river.
• Gautami and Vasishta: natural distributaries of the Godavari. The Eastern and Central Delta Canals are engineered, which is a different thing.
• Pattiseema: a lift scheme associated with raising Godavari water toward the Krishna basin. Press reports place its commissioning in 2015-16 and describe a large pump house; confirm the exact figures before quoting them. The key word is lift, meaning pumps. It is a transfer scheme, not a new source river for the Krishna.
• Yeleru: a major irrigation project in Kakinada district. The district portal says it serves an ayacut of 53,017 acres in both seasons and also supplies water for drinking and industrial needs to Visakhapatnam city. Do not place it on the Krishna just because a city is mentioned in the question.

The status of Polavaram is the most time-sensitive part of the topic. Press reports in 2025 and 2026 quote different completion targets, including 2026 and 2027 for different components, and different percentage-completion figures from different agencies. A safe answer in an examination is based on the official reply cited in the question, not on a news figure. The India-WRIS and CWC pages give the Godavari at about 1,465 km, rising near Trimbakeshwar in Maharashtra, which is a stable fact.

4. Krishna: the project chain

The chain, upstream to downstream, is Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage, then the delta. A multiple-choice option may list two genuine Krishna structures in the wrong order, so draw the arrows before choosing.

• Srisailam is a Krishna reservoir near the Nallamala hills, and it is also a temple place. The Krishna board describes a gravity dam in a deep gorge, about 512 m long at the top, with 12 radial crest gates and a full reservoir level of 885 ft. Its left-bank underground power station has six reversible 150 MW units and the right bank has seven 110 MW units. The board's page places it on the border of the Telangana district Mahabubnagar and the Kurnool district of the older map, which is now Nandyal. An irrigation question and a culture question about Srisailam have different answers.
• Nagarjuna Sagar is a masonry storage and irrigation project. The board says it was inaugurated on 10 December 1955 and gives its length as about 1,449.6 m, its height as about 124.7 m above the deepest foundation and a full reservoir level of 590 ft, with about 181 TMC of live storage above 510 ft and power of 960 MW including reversible units. The project lies between Telangana's Nalgonda district and Andhra Pradesh's Palnadu district (the Guntur district of the older map), and its command extends well beyond one district. Its right canal is commonly named after Jawaharlal Nehru and its left canal after Lal Bahadur Shastri (a Wikipedia cross-check).
• Pulichintala is also called the K. L. Rao Sagar project. The board gives a dam about 42.24 m high and 2,922 m long, a reservoir of 46 TMC, installed power of 120 MW (four units of 30 MW) and benefits for about 13 lakh acres in four coastal districts of the older map. It sits downstream of Nagarjuna Sagar, and its role in the Krishna delta system is supply security and flood regulation.
• Prakasam Barrage is at Vijayawada, now in NTR district. Do not link it to Prakasam district just because of the name; it is named after Tanguturi Prakasam, and the barrage was completed in 1957 on the site of an older nineteenth-century anicut (Wikipedia cross-check). An older Krishna-district portal may still use the earlier label.
• The Tungabhadra is a major tributary of the Krishna in the northwest, joining upstream of Srisailam. The India-WRIS page gives its drainage area as about 71,417 sq km and the Bhima's as about 70,614 sq km, and records that the basin's allocations among states are made through the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal and apply to the pre-2014 state, so do not apply them to the successor States.

5. Rayalaseema and the south: lifts and transfers

Dry areas depend on engineered conveyance. Classify each item as a storage node, a regulator, a lift or a canal.

• Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi: a large lift-and-canal scheme drawing from the Srisailam foreshore. The Krishna board's page says it was conceived to use 40 TMC near Malyala in Kurnool district, with irrigation of about 2.44 lakh hectares and drinking water for about 33 lakh people in the four Rayalaseema districts of the older map. Phase I is described as about 0.80 lakh hectares and Phase II as about 1.64 lakh hectares. It is a project route, not a river or reservoir.
• Pothireddypadu and Banakacherla: a head regulator and a cross-regulator on the Srisailam right-bank side, from which canals fan out. The Srisailam Right Branch Canal, according to the board, starts from the Banakacherla cross-regulator complex, runs about 190 km and fills the Gorakallu and Owk reservoirs in Kurnool district on its way to the Mylavaram reservoir.
• Telugu Ganga: a multi-stage supply and irrigation network linking Krishna-source water, intermediate storage and channels toward Chennai. The board gives the canal as about 408 km from Srisailam to the Tamil Nadu border, with four balancing reservoirs (Velugodu, SPVB, Somasila, Kandaleru), 29 TMC of Krishna flood flows and 30 TMC of Penna flood flows, plus 15 TMC for Chennai (5 TMC each from three Krishna basin states). Its name does not mean a Ganga flows through AP.
• Somasila and Kandaleru: two separate reservoirs joined by a link; do not merge them. The Nellore district portal gives Somasila a gross capacity of about 78 TMC and completion in 1989, and describes Kandaleru as formed on the Kandaleru river near Chellatur village in Rapur mandal, completed in 1997, supplying 15 TMC of Krishna water to Chennai. The same portal notes that the Sangam and Nellore barrages on the Penna were completed and inaugurated on 6 September 2022.
• Mid Pennar: across the Penna near Penakacherla in Ananthapuramu district, with a storage of about 5.17 TMC and an ayacut of about 77,632 acres, according to the board's page.
• K. C. Canal and Sunkesula barrage: the Kurnool-Cuddapah canal takes off from the Tungabhadra at Sunkesula, about 30 km from Kurnool, and the board describes a barrage replacing a roughly 130-year-old anicut, with 30 vents, 1.2 TMC storage and a 305.6 km canal.
• Veligonda: a Srisailam-foreshore gravity scheme through twin tunnels to the Nallamala Sagar reservoir. Press reports say the first phase was inaugurated at the end of August 2026 with the release of about 10.7 TMC, serving about 1.19 lakh acres in phase one, against a full-project target of about 4.47 lakh acres in Prakasam, Markapuram, Nellore and Kadapa districts. Foundation stone: March 1996. Treat this as a "phase one commissioned, project incomplete" fact.
• Gandikota: a Penna-side reservoir in YSR Kadapa district. The fort and gorge are heritage clues; the reservoir is the water asset.

6. Structure vocabulary that decides MCQs

Term	Meaning
Dam	Impounds water; the stored body is the reservoir
Barrage	Gated structure that raises river level and regulates diversion
Anicut	Lower, traditional diversion structure
Regulator	Controls flow into a canal or branch
Lift scheme	Uses pumps to overcome elevation
Ayacut / command	Land intended to be served, not the area actually irrigated

Measurement terms also matter. Full reservoir level is a reference elevation, not a volume. Gross capacity, live storage and current storage are different columns. Inflow, outflow and flood cushion are different again. Hydropower is measured in megawatts, storage in TMC or cubic metres, and irrigated land in hectares or acres. Check the unit in every option. As an example, the Handri-Neeva ayacut is given in hectares on the board's page and in acres in many news reports; 2.44 lakh hectares is not 2.44 lakh acres, and a 2.5-times difference can make a wrong option look right.

Dams are also classified by material and design: a masonry or concrete gravity dam, such as Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam, resists water with its own weight; an earth-and-rock fill dam uses compacted material; a barrage has gates across the whole width and almost no storage. When a question says "largest storage" it is nearly always asking about a dam, and when it says "diversion" or "delta head" it is nearly always asking about a barrage.

7. The project status ladder

A frequent source of wrong answers is treating a legal or financial step as completion. Use six rungs: proposal, administrative sanction, construction, partial commissioning, operation and measured delivery. Polavaram's national-project designation is a legal status. A funding approval is a dated fiscal decision. Neither proves that all headworks, canals, hydropower and rehabilitation are finished. The Neradi sanction of 2026 is a rung-two fact; the Veligonda phase-one release is a rung-four fact. If the question's verb says "approved", do not choose an option that means "completed".

Large reservoirs also involve land acquisition, resettlement and environmental conditions. Engineering progress and rehabilitation can follow different schedules. For the legal frame around Polavaram and the river boards, see the post on the AP Reorganisation Act explained.

8. Basin versus district

A basin follows watersheds; a district follows government boundaries. When a district splits, the river and the physical site stay where they are. With 28 districts now in the state, as on October 2026, an older report may carry a parent-district label that no longer matches the current map. Answer the river from hydrology and the district from the date in the question. Inter-state allocation is a legal matter, so a classroom map cannot settle it. The official sources for the districts are summarised in the 28-district fact sheet.

9. Worked examples

Example 1: reverse order. A question lists "Prakasam Barrage, Pulichintala, Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam" and asks for the order from upstream to downstream. Reverse it: Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage.

Example 2: structure type. "Which of the following has the largest gross storage?" Eliminate Dowleswaram and Prakasam, which are barrages, and then compare dams only.

Example 3: unit trap. An option says 2.44 lakh acres for Handri-Neeva while the official page says 2.44 lakh hectares. The pair is right but the unit is wrong, so the option is false.

Example 4: status verb. "Polavaram was completed in which year?" The correct reasoning is that the project has national status but is not reported complete in official sources, so any option naming a completion year is unproven and should be eliminated unless the question states a date.

Example 5: transfer versus river. "Which of the following is a natural river?" Telugu Ganga, Handri-Neeva and Pattiseema are schemes; the Penna is the river.

Key facts for exams

• Gotta is on the Vamsadhara; Thotapalli is on the Nagavali. Both rivers rise in Kalahandi, Odisha.
• Section 90 of the Reorganisation Act 2014 gives Polavaram national-project status; official project note lists about 960 MW, about 2.91 lakh hectares and about 80 TMC diversion to the Krishna.
• Krishna chain: Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage.
• Srisailam: 12 radial crest gates, about 512 m long (KRMB). Nagarjuna Sagar: inaugurated 10 December 1955, FRL 590 ft (KRMB).
• Handri-Neeva: 40 TMC from the Srisailam foreshore at Malyala; about 2.44 lakh hectares (KRMB).
• Telugu Ganga: about 408 km, four balancing reservoirs, 15 TMC for Chennai (KRMB).
• Somasila gross capacity about 78 TMC, completed 1989; Kandaleru completed 1997 (Nellore district portal).
• Barrages and anicuts divert; dams store; lifts use pumps; ayacut is the designed command.
• Veligonda phase one reported commissioned at the end of August 2026; the full project is incomplete.

Common exam traps

1. Pairing Thotapalli with Vamsadhara or Gotta with Nagavali.
2. Calling a barrage (Prakasam, Dowleswaram) a large storage reservoir.
3. Putting Pulichintala after Prakasam Barrage.
4. Linking Prakasam Barrage with Prakasam district.
5. Treating Polavaram's national-project status as completion.
6. Reading a transfer scheme such as Handri-Neeva or Telugu Ganga as a natural river.
7. Mixing up design command area with area actually irrigated.
8. Quoting a single day's reservoir level as a permanent fact.
9. Confusing the Gandikota fort with the Gandikota reservoir.
10. Confusing hectares with acres in an ayacut option.

How to revise this in 7 days

• Day 1: Trace the five rivers on a blank map; add the ten pairs from the table.
• Day 2: Godavari reach, distributaries and the Polavaram left and right routes.
• Day 3: Krishna chain in order, plus Tungabhadra and the official figures for Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar.
• Day 4: Penna, Somasila, Kandaleru, Telugu Ganga and Gandikota.
• Day 5: Lift schemes, regulators, Veligonda and the structure vocabulary.
• Day 6: Status ladder, measurement units and basin versus district.
• Day 7: Redraw blank, then attempt a timed set from the mock test page.

Ten practice questions

1. Gotta Barrage is associated with which river? a) Nagavali b) Vamsadhara c) Godavari d) Penna Answer: b) Vamsadhara.

2. Which structure lies between Nagarjuna Sagar and Prakasam Barrage on the Krishna? a) Srisailam b) Somasila c) Pulichintala d) Thotapalli Answer: c) Pulichintala.

3. What does a lift scheme such as Pattiseema or Handri-Neeva rely on? a) Gravity alone b) Pumps that raise water over elevation c) Tidal flow d) Rainfall only Answer: b) Pumps that raise water over elevation, where gravity alone would not deliver it.

4. Which Act section treats Polavaram as a national project? a) Section 5 b) Section 46 c) Section 90 d) Section 94 Answer: c) Section 90 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

5. Is a head regulator such as Pothireddypadu a source river or a reservoir? a) A source river b) A reservoir c) Neither; it controls entry into a canal d) A lagoon Answer: c) Neither. It controls entry into a canal.

6. According to the Krishna board, the Srisailam dam has how many radial crest gates? a) 6 b) 12 c) 30 d) 48 Answer: b) 12.

7. Telugu Ganga was formulated with a drinking-water component for which city? a) Hyderabad b) Bengaluru c) Chennai d) Visakhapatnam Answer: c) Chennai, with 15 TMC contributed by three Krishna basin states.

8. Which structure is a delta diversion barrage near Rajamahendravaram? a) Dowleswaram (Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage) b) Somasila c) Nagarjuna Sagar d) Gandikota Answer: a) Dowleswaram.

9. Somasila lies on which river and in which region? a) Krishna, Vijayawada b) Penna, Nellore c) Godavari, Eluru d) Nagavali, Srikakulam Answer: b) Penna, in the Nellore region.

10. The Neradi barrage sanction reported in 2026 is best described as: a) A completed structure b) An administrative or financial sanction, not completion c) A Godavari lift scheme d) A dam on the Penna Answer: b) An administrative or financial sanction, not completion; Neradi is on the Vamsadhara.

Frequently asked questions

Which rivers rise in Odisha and flow through Andhra Pradesh? The Vamsadhara and the Nagavali both rise in Kalahandi district of Odisha and reach the sea on the Andhra coast.

Is Polavaram completed? Official sources describe a national project under construction. Completion targets reported in the press have changed, so do not rely on a single year. Check the latest Ministry or Water Resources Department statement.

What is the difference between a dam and a barrage? A dam stores a large volume in a reservoir. A barrage has gates across the river, raises the level and diverts water into canals, with little storage.

Is Prakasam Barrage in Prakasam district? No. It is at Vijayawada, in NTR district. It is named after Tanguturi Prakasam.

Does the Ganga flow in Andhra Pradesh through the Telugu Ganga project? No. Telugu Ganga is a canal and reservoir network carrying Krishna and Penna flood water; the name is not a river name.

What is ayacut? The land a project is designed to irrigate. Actual irrigated area in a given year can be lower.

Should I memorise reservoir levels? No. Learn river, structure type and function; treat levels as live data.

Related reading

• AP geography notes: rivers, districts and ports
• AP district-wise fact sheet: 28 districts
• AP agriculture, irrigation and crops
• AP Reorganisation Act 2014 explained
• Andhra Pradesh government exams 2026 guide

Wrap-up

The method is simple: river first, structure type second, date last. Use the full rivers and irrigation book for the maps and the explained practice sets, then connect the water side to farming through the post on agriculture, irrigation and crops. When you are ready to test yourself, pareeksha.in offers practice with 10 Lakh+ MCQs, 100+ Exams and 5,000+ Full-Length Mocks. The wider exam landscape is covered in the Andhra Pradesh exams pillar guide and the Andhra Pradesh hub. Always check current official notifications for anything time-sensitive.

Sources and verification

Pages opened for this revision (official first):

• Krishna River Management Board project pages (krmb.gov.in): Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Pulichinthala, Handri Niva Sujala Sravanthi, Telugu Ganga, Srisailam Right Branch Canal, Sunkesula barrage, Mid Pennar, Gajuladinne.
• Central Water Commission, eastern river basins summary (cwc.gov.in): Vamsadhara and Nagavali.
• India-WRIS wiki (indiawris.gov.in): Godavari, Krishna and Pennar basin pages.
• Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district portal (spsnellore.ap.gov.in): Somasila, Kandaleru, Sangam and Nellore barrages.
• Kakinada district portal (kakinada.ap.gov.in): Yeleru reservoir and Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage listing.
• Ministry of Jal Shakti and Press Information Bureau material on Polavaram, seen through search summaries (the Ministry PDF returned an access error when opened directly).
• Press reports (Deccan Chronicle, The News Minute, The South First) for Veligonda phase one, the Neradi sanction and the December 2025 district decisions.
• Wikipedia pages (Polavaram Project, Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, Srisailam Dam, Prakasam Barrage, Dowleswaram Barrage, Nagavali and Vamsadhara rivers), used only as cross-checks.

Not verified: the Polavaram spillway and turbine figures, the Prakasam Barrage completion year, the Thotapalli construction dates and ayacut, the Pattiseema commissioning details, and the Veligonda inauguration date (reports vary between 30 and 31 August 2026) rest on press or Wikipedia cross-checks and are hedged in the text. Polavaram's current completion percentage was deliberately left out because sources conflict.