The Upper Krishna Project (UKP) is an irrigation project across the Krishna River to provide irrigation to the drought-prone areas of Bijapur, Bagalkot, Gulbarga, Yadgir and Raichur districts in the state of Karnataka in south India. The project had been designed by the Government of Karnataka to irrigate 1536,000 acres of land (6,220 km²).
The foundation stone for the project was laid by the then Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on 22 May 1964. It was designed to irrigate 1536,000 acres of land in Gulbarga, Raichur, Bijapur, Bagalkot and now Yadgir. UKP intends to use the bulk of 173 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water allocated to the state of Karnataka by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal, headed by R. S. Bachawat, in May 1976. The initial estimation of the cost of the project was 120 crore. however, after many revisions, the final cost of the project reached upto 10,371.67 crore and it took 42 years for the project to be completed. 201 villages were affected by the project and 136 villages were completely submerged in the backwaters of the reservoirs constructed as a part of the project.
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