Almatti will bloom into tourist hotspot

gulbarga: krishna jala bhagya nigamais all set to develop the almatti dam site as a tourist spot, within a span ofthree to four years. a team of journalists from gulbarga district, which was onan inter-district study tour two days ago, witnessed the ongoing works at thedam site, promising to make it a tourist spot in the near future. taking thebrindavan gardens at mysore as the model, a garden is likely to be developed,with a variety of trees and bushes taking shape to make it exotic. the dam site,already home to beautiful scenery, will be landscaped and bound by the forest. amusical fountain and boating opportunity will make the spot complete, accordingto siddalingappa, executive engineer of almatti dam. so there, no longer willscores of tourists from north karnataka need to make a trip down south to thefabled brindavan, not when there is a home-grown fairy garden right in thebackyard of the almatti dam. the agencies concerned have already taken up workon the garden, said siddalingappa. the forest and horticulture departments havebeen asked to depute their staff to the site to take up plantation andafforestation. according to information available, the karnataka government hasalready prepared to make a tour package of bijapur, badami, aihole, pattadakal,almatti and kudala sangama. plans are afoot to organise a tourist bus frombijapur, which would cover all these tourist spots. it will probably startoperations within two days of the almatti and kudala sangama being developed.meanwhile, construction of a powerhouse is on to generate 265 mw of electricity.the powerhouse will start operations this month or in april. de-watering processis in progress at the dam site. siddalingappa said the karnataka powercorporation has entrusted construction work to shankarnarayan constructions,which has been asked to complete the work within two years. the project cost isestimated at rs 750 crore. sources in the karnataka power transmissioncorporation say the shortage of electricity in the state would be minimised to alarge extent.