In the deep gorge of Nallamala hills, this dam was constructed which is mainly 300 m above the sea level. Srisalam dam is mainly of 512 m (1680ft) long and 145 m (476ft) high which let it to have 12 radical crest gates. It mainly includes a limited number of reservoirs of 800 km2 (310 sq mi) under it. It has mainly two power stations, left bank power station houses which is 6x 150 MW and used as a Francis-pump turbines and the right bank power station house which contains 7x 110MW which used as a Francis-turbine generators.

Government has acclaimed Srisailam dam as the India’s twelve largest hydroelectric plan. Srisailam dam also become the tourists spot for those who are nature lovers. Due to its beautiful backdrop of Nallamala hill ranges and the flow of river Krishna made it an attractive spot.

Photo Gallery

History

The beginning of Srisailam dam was in the year of 1960, to run as the power project in thedistrict of Andhra Pradesh across the river Krishna. Due to the no. of hindrance this project had been delayed but in the year of 1981 it was finally constructed after a twenty years delay. One of the greatest success of the dam was that government had converted it into a multipurpose having the generating capacity of 770 MW which was considered to be completed in the second stage in the year of 1987. The water from Srisailam dam runs with the catchment area of 206,040 km square (770 sq mi) in the area of 2000 km (770 sq mi). By thesupply of water from Srisailam dam, the irrigation will improve in the district of Kurnool and Kaddapa under the right branch canal of 790 km sq (310 sq mi). It was estimated that this multipurpose crossed the limit of Rs10 billions in an enlarged form. With the installation of four generating sets each of 110 MW, Srisailam dam alone cost for a Rs 4.04 billion. A large amount of fund has been invested in this project and even the world bank provides a fund for this dam at its initial stage costing Rs 1.4 billions and the cost of its right canal is estimated about 4.49 billion. During the time period of October 2009, Srisailam dam was gone with the threatened due to the inflow in the cost of the project.

Power Generation Optimization

At present there is storage of the initial inflows without using the power generation into the Srisailam reservoir. The excessive flood water from the dam is used to fill the unused part of Srisailam reservoir as immediate as possible and some the part of flood water also led to the downstream in to the Nagarjunasagar reservoir without being avail for the power generation. The Nagarjunasagar reservoir mainly fills by the uniform water generating through power plant units.

Attractions

There are various temples located in this area which are from ancient time and a person may feel relax and worship large number of God who are existing in the caves which are there at this place.

Bhramaramba Temple

Srisailam is considered one of the attractive amongs the other. Its Bhramaramba Temple is considered to be one of the prestige places in Srisailam. This temple is located on the southern bank of river Krishna on the Nallamala hills. It is one of the renowned temple for the Srisailamdistrict in the hill town of Srisailam. There is a worship of goddess Bhramaramba (Goddess Parvati), and the lord Mallikarjuna in this temple. Lord Mallikarjuna was one of the 12th avtar of lord Shiva.
It is the believing of the people there was that goddess Parvati had taken the form of bee and used to worship the Lord Shva. By this people used to worship the goddess Parvati and lord Shiva.

Mallikarjunaswamy Temple

Another attractive place in Srisailam is the Mallikarjunaswamy Temple. It is the temple located at the southern bank of river Krishna at the height of 457 metres high aoounts as one of the pilgrim spot of Srisailam town. This temple is known for the 12 Jyothirlinga temples in the country. The decoration of Mallikarjunaswamy Temple is inbuilt with Lord Mallikarjuna nakashis all around which increase the beauty of the temple and even its structure looks like a shell formed structure.

At the time of 6th centaury Mallikarjuna temple has been formed by the king of 6th centuary of Vijayanagar Harihara Raya (1404-1405).This temple shows the art structure of Vijayanagar by towers, adornments and its sculptures. The first eye-catching attraction factor at the time of entrance in the temple is sculpture of sage Bringi standing on three legs. As per the belief of the people there, it was said that sage was for the goddess Parvati because she used to worship Lord Shiva. There are various small temples built in and around the temple to devote their worship to other gods too like Nandi, Nataraja etc.

Shivaji Spurti Kendra

In the older times, Maratha King, Shivaji came to this temple and stayed for some time in this temple. He was a great devotee to Goddess Durga. He came to this temple in 1674. He also donated large amount of gold coins and other treasures to this temple for its development. He also constructed the northern tower and also included golden spires to this temple. He left some of his administrators who were able to this temple so that the organization and development of this temple may be held in a good way. According to the beliefs of the people, Mother Goddess visited Shivaji in her dreams in this temple and gifted him a sword through which he rooted his enemies easily. To make her honorable, he developed this temple. It is also having a Shivaji Memorial which is of Maratha Kind and it is having sculptures of the Maratha Ruler, Shivaji. Here is a picture in which it is depicted that Goddess is giving sword to Maratha warrior so that he may protect him from his enemies and to kill them.

Akkamahadevi Caves

There are innumerable caves that are available in the Nallamalla Forest and these caves are having large number of importance as per the religious and historical perspective.There is not so much information is available about this cave. When a person move towards the downside of it from Patalganga, nearly 10 kilometers, he may see a local cave which is having good religious belief and people come here to offer their prayers.It belongs to Shivite community and the popular name of this temple is Akka Mahadevi Caves.

This cave was formed naturally and it is located above the Krishna River.The amazing thing about this is that it is standing without any support. This cave is the home of various silent and violent Saiva, which are truly discussed in the literature of ancient medieval period. This cave was named after the Akkamahadevi who was in 12th AD apologized in this cave and also worshipped Shivalinga which was formed naturally and esisted at the dark end of this cave. It is very risky and dangerous if people go alone into this cave. One must take precautions while moving inside this cave.