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 1,536,000 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 Tribunal, in May 1976. The initial estimation of the cost of the project was ; however, after many revisions, the final cost of the project reached , 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.
UKP-Stage II Stage II of the UKP plans to use 54 tmcft of water and irrigate 1971.20 km2 of land. It involves irrigation on the right bank of the river by the flow and also by lifting the waters to higher levels on both left and right banks. The project mainly involved construction of channels. Hipparagi barrage with 4.9
tmcft live storage capacity supplies irrigation water to nearly 60,000 acres by
Ainapur and
Halyal lift canals.
UKP-Stage III The Karnataka government on 3 December 2011 unveiled a five-year action plan to fully use its share of water in the Krishna River basin. Stage III of UKP would use 130 tmcft of water. The Karnataka government would be spending to complete the third stage of the project. Stage III consists of increasing the full reservoir water level of Alamatti Dam to and this would require the relocation of 30 villages. One lakh acres (405 km2) of land would be submerged. UKP stage III would involve lift irrigation schemes at Mulwad, Chimmalagi, and Indi and extension of the Narayanapura Right Bank Canal and Bhima diversion plan. Stage III would also involve the extension of lift irrigation schemes at Rampur, Mallabad, Koppal and Herakal. ==Major benefits==