| Meghadri Gedda Reservoir | |
|---|---|
| Sri Dronam Raju Satyanarayana Reservoir Scheme | |
 Meghadri Gedda dam | |
  Meghadri Gedda Reservoir | |
| Location | Visakhapatnam,India |
| Coordinates | 17°46′17″N83°11′02″E / 17.771376°N 83.183766°E /17.771376; 83.183766 |
| Type | reservoir |
| Managing agency | Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation |
Meghadri Gedda Reservoir, officially "Sri Dronam Raju Satyanarayana Reservoir Scheme" is a reservoir and dam inVisakhapatnam, India. It is one of the main water sources of theVisakhapatnam city.[1] Its capacity is 11 MGD and it is maintained byGreater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.[2]
It was discussed in 1964 state assembly debates as an important project which would help meet the water requirements of the soon to be set upVisakhapatnam Steel Plant, theHindustan Shipyard, the thenBengal Nagpur Railway, together with theRaiwada Reservoir.[3][4] The project is named afterDronamraju Satyanarayana, aCongress politician from Visakhapatnam and was inaugurated on 27 September 1977 by the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh,Jalagam Vengala Rao. The estimated expenditure was ₹6.3 crore (equivalent to ₹183 crore or $22M USD in 2024) out of which ₹3.29 crore was spent on reservoir works and ₹1.37 Cr for acquiring 2,716 acres (11 sqkm) of land and another ₹1.37 for public health related expenditures.
The reservoir situated betweenPendurthi,Sabbavaram, andGopalapatnam. Its eastern edge parallels theHowrah–Chennai main line and mountains of Sabbavaram andVepagunta surround the water body.
The Vaaluteeru rivulet is the primary water source for the reservoir with several other streams from the nearbyKothavalasa, Pendurthi, Simhachalam, and other areas draining into it. The Vaaluteru gets its name from the Telugu words Vaalu (its shape) and Eeru (stream) which later came to be Waltair. These together make up the Meghadri "Gedda" (drain) which joins theBay of Bengal at the Dolphin Hill nearVisakhapatnam Port. The construction of the dam and the development ofAirport and the Harbour has dried up several streams which used to pass through the city.[5]
A floating solar power plant of 3MW capacity has been commissioned on 22 July 2022 which saves 12 acres of land area and reduces evaporation at a cost of Rs.14 crore.[6] This project was part of theAsian Development Bank'sVisakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor Development Program and the "Urbanclimate change resilience trust fund".[7][8]
