The diversion dam or barrage, built with stone masonry to function as a major irrigation project, is in height and has a length of . At the Full Reservoir Level of , with a water spread area of , the dam has a gross storage capacity of . The spillway designed to rout a design flood discharge of per second is fitted with 16 radial gates over a length of . While the dam was completed in 1978, its irrigation component was completed in 1979. The water stored in the reservoir is diverted for irrigation through a control structure on the left bank of the barrage to the main canal of length, designed to carry a discharge of per second. The gross command area under the canal system is with a net command area of (as against the earlier planned figure of ) to mainly raise three crops of
paddy every year in the
Iritty and
Taliparamba taluks of Kannur district; other crops grown in the command are coconut, arecanut, cashew nut, tapioca, pepper, ginger, turmeric and vegetables. The network of canals includes six branch canals of total length and 32 distributaries of total length. The entire command is covered under the Command Area Development Programme (CADP) of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India and is being monitored since 2003. ==Failure of gates==