Sammakka Barrage

Sammakka Barrage (or Thupakulagudem Barrage) is an under-construction barrage across Godavari River at Thupakulagudem village, Eturnagaram mandal, Mulugu district of Telangana State. This will stabilise the existing irrigated area of 2,51,310 Hectare under J. Chokka Rao Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme and 3,04,000 hectares of Sriram Sagar Project stages I & II with 50 TMC of water. Another 50 TMC will be used for providing drinking water to villages en route.
History.
This barrage was earlier referred to as "Kanthanapally Barrage" and it was proposed at 17 km downstream of the existing J. Chokka Rao Devadula Lift Irrigation pump house with FRL at +85.0 meters. The barrage would've been constructed at narrow gorge on Godavari river at Kanthanapally village () but this would've led to submergence of about 4 villages fully and 11 villages partially. Potential land acquisition hurdles were also expected, as this would require acquisition of 7789.42 hectares of land. This barrage was earlier part of "P V Narasimha Rao Kanthanapally Sujala Sravathi Project (PVNRKSSP)".
In 2016, in order to avoid issues related to submergence and land acquisition, Government of Telangana decided to construct Thupakulagudem Barrage at the present location, which is 3 km downstream of the existing J. Chokka Rao Devadula Lift Irrigation pump house with FRL of +77.0 meters. At this location, there is no large land submergence with only river bed of 580.18 hectares and 94 hectares of surrounding land will get submerged. This would provide pondage for drawing the water for J. Chokka Rao Devadula Lift Irrigation scheme.
On February 13th, 2020, Thupakulagudem Barrage was officially renamed as Sammakka Barrage, after tribal warrior goddess Sammakka. The boundary of Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary is located at the close proximity from this barrage, where biennial festival of Sammakka Saralamma Jatara is held honour the Hindu tribal goddesses Sammakka.