Gosikhurd Dam, Spillway and Reservoir.

 reservoir, spillway

Information about Gosikhurd Dam Irrigation Project.
Gosikhurd project is one of the ambitious project in Vidarbha region. Being built for Irrigation and Hydroelectricity .It was started in year 1983 it is still not complete . Official Designation of Gosekhurd Dam Irrigation Project is "Gosi (Kd) , D - 05110 " Also "Gosi Khurd ( Indira Sagar )- Major Irrigation Project". Gosikhurd village is located in Pauni Tahsil of
Bhandara district on Wainganga River. The length of the composite Earth fill dam dam is 11360 m (37270.341 Feet) in two sections separated by a Spillway.Spillway is Ogee type 773 m (2536.09 Feet). Height of the dam above lowest foundation is 22.5 ( 73.8189 Feet ) .Spillway has 33
radial Type spillway gates .The Dam's catchment area is 3486.2 Thousand Hectors . Maximum / Gross storage capacity is 1146.075 MCM. Live storage capacity is 376.592 MCM.On paper, almost 95% of work at the Ambhora project has been completed. It has a stated capacity to irrigate 8441 hectares of land. Actually, water reaches only 2600 odd hectares as of now. The project-- situated at the confluence of Wainganga, Amb, Nag, and Kanhan rivers-- was covered as a part of field visits organized by Jan Manch, Bapuji Aney Sanstha, Vidarbha Economic Development Council The main canal is over 10 kms long. The distributory canals from which water reaches the fields resembled a marsh. VIDC officials admit the growth slows down flow of water to the fields. As the thick vegetation hampers the flow, more water has to be pumped in leading to higher electricity consumption. This increases the time taken for water to reach fields to 16 -17 hours as against normal four hours. Farmers also end up paying more for water due to higher power consumption. From last year onwards, government has decided to pass on the electricity bills incurred for running the pump house to farmers. This has led to a four fold increase in water charges to Rs4100 per hectare.

The first phase of the dam was completed in 2005. The officials admitted that in normal course the first phase should have been taken over for maintenance at least a year after that but no application was made. Even after a substantial part of the second phase was over there was no attempt to hand it over to the maintenance wing till last year. Now maintenance issues have started cropping up. One of the pumps used to lift water is not working.