The idea of constructing a dam across the river Krishna dates from 1798. It began in the hands of Captain Buckle and was revised in 1839 and 1841 by Captain Best and Captain Lake. After the endorsement of
Major Cotton, the board of Directors of the
East India Company approved it on 5 January 1850. The dam was started in 1852 and completed in 1855. It cost Rs 1.75 crore in those days and seems to have paid the then government a return of 18%. It used to irrigate 7 lakh acres. Later, the State Government constructed a bridge that was named after
Tanguturi Prakasam, the first Chief Minister of
Andhra (a state formed in 1953, which later became Andhra Pradesh in 1956 after the merger of Telugu speaking districts of former Hyderabad State). Completed in 1957, it helps to irrigate over 1.2 million acres of land. This barrage also supplies water to
Buckingham canal which was initially constructed as an
inland navigation canal but was later used as an irrigation water supply canal. One of the first major irrigation projects of
South India, the Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada was completely successful in its mission. Andhra Pradesh largely owes its rich agriculture to the Prakasam Barrage as the project facilitated the irrigation of large tracts of farmland. The Barrage provides views of the lake. It has become a tourist attraction of Vijayawada. On 13 February 2019, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu laid a foundation stone to construct a new barrage named
Vykuntapuram Barrage on the Krishna River nearly upstream of Prakasam Barrage. == Specifications ==