Mekedatu Project: In News
The Supreme Court recently dismissed a petition filed by Tamil Nadu to review a November 2025 decision that termed the State’s challenge to Karnataka’s proposed Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir cum Drinking Water project as “premature”.
- Mekedatu Project is a multi-purpose (drinking water and power) project involving the construction of a balancing reservoir near Kanakapura in the Ramanagara district, Karnataka.
- The project is proposed at the confluence of the Cauvery River with its tributary Arkavathi.
- It will have a capacity to store 67 tmcft of water, supplying drinking water to Bengaluru and generating 400 MW of power.
- Tamil Nadu, the lower riparian state, has been opposing the project, raising apprehensions that the state would be affected if the project takes shape.
- Tamil Nadu says, Mekedatu area represents the last free point in Karnataka from where Cauvery water flows unrestricted into Tamil Nadu, and the Mekedatu dam project is an attempt by Karnataka to block this free flow of water.
