The Upper Krishna Project was conceived by the Government of Karnataka across the Krishna River

Krishna River

The Krishna River , is one of the longest rivers in central-southern India, about . It is also referred to as Krishnaveni in its original nomenclature...

 to provide irrigation to the drought prone areas of Bijapur District, Bagalkote, Gulbarga District

Gulbarga District

Gulbarga district is one of the 30 districts of Karnataka state in southern India. Gulbarga city is the administrative headquarters of the district...

, Raichur District

Raichur district

Raichur District is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in the northeast part of the state and is bounded by Yadgir district in the north, Bijapur and Bagalkot district in the northwest, Koppal district in the west, Bellary district in the south, Anantapur...

 and Koppal District

Koppal district

Koppal district is an administrative district in the state of Karnataka in India. In the past Koppal was referred to as 'Kopana Nagara'. Hampi, a World heritage center, covers some areas of Koppal District. It is situated approximately 38 km away...

. The project has been taken up in two stages. While Stage I is complete, Stage II is partially complete and work is still going on.

The benefits of this project include

• On completion, the project will irrigate 6,220 square kilometres of lands in the districts of Gulbarga District
  Gulbarga District
  Gulbarga district is one of the 30 districts of Karnataka state in southern India. Gulbarga city is the administrative headquarters of the district...
  
  , Raichur District
  Raichur district
  Raichur District is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in the northeast part of the state and is bounded by Yadgir district in the north, Bijapur and Bagalkot district in the northwest, Koppal district in the west, Bellary district in the south, Anantapur...
  
  , Bagalkot District
  Bagalkot district
  Bāgalkot district is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. The district headquarters is located in the town of Bagalkot. The district is located in northern Karnataka and borders Belgaum, Gadag, Koppal, Raichur and Bijapur...
  
   & Bijapur District.
• A hydel-power generation plant of installed capacity of 297 MW has been contemplated at Almatti. It is estimated to generate about 672 million units annually. This work has been assigned to KPTCL, a Karnataka Government Company.
• About 530 km length of new village and link roads will be constructed, while improvements to about 70 km of existing roads will be done.
• Increased production of food-grains and cash crops in the command area of the UKP is expected to add an annual income of about Rs.6000 Crores to the Country’s economy. It will usher in alround prosperity and growth to the otherwise draught-prone and poverty sticken districts of the north eastern part of Karnataka.
• The project envisages to provide drinking water to 18 urban and hundreds of rural centres.

Overview

UKP-Stage I

Works	Status	Area irrigated (km²)
Narayanpur Dam and allied works	Complete	-
Almatti Dam up to 509.016 m	Complete	-
Construction of Narayanpur Left Canal	Complete	472.23
Construction of Shapur Branch Canal	Complete	1221.2
Construction of Mudbal Branch Canal	Complete	510
Construction of Indi Branch Canal	Complete	1312.6
Construction of Jewargi Branch Canal	Complete	571
Construction of Almatti Left Bank Canal	Complete	162
TOTAL		4249.03

Stage II

Upper Krishna Project Stage-II is a multi purpose project to utilise 54 TMC of water and to irrigate 1970 square kilometres of land and generate 672 million units of energy per year. The projects included in Stage-II are as follows.