The Mekedatu project envisages impounding 67.16 TMC ft through a ₹9,000-crore drinking water-cum-balancing reservoir at Mekedatu, about 100 km from Bengaluru. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The row over the Mekedatu dam project, which has been a thorn in the relationship between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, has resurfaced with the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopting a unanimous resolution against the Karnataka government’s proposal for constructing a drinking water-cum-balancing reservoir across the Cauvery river at Mekedatu.
The reason for the resolution was apparently the preparation on the part of the upper riparian State to go ahead with the submission of a revised Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the Mekedatu proposal in light of the Supreme Court dismissing Tamil Nadu’s petition to review a November 2025 decision; the court termed the State’s challenge to Karnataka’s proposed dam as “premature”. The project envisages impounding 67.16 thousand million cubic ft (TMC ft) through a ₹9,000-crore drinking water-cum-balancing reservoir at Mekedatu, about 100 km from Bengaluru. It would have a 400 MW (megawatt) hydro power component but no irrigation component.
Published – June 25, 2026 12:42 am IST
