 The dam provides irrigation water to the Nalgonda, Suryapet, Krishna, Khammam, West Godavari, Guntur and Prakasam districts along with hydro electricity generation.Nagarjuna Sagar dam is designed and constructed to use all the water impounded in its reservoir of 312 TMC gross storage capacity which is the second biggest water reservoir in India.The Nizam made the British engineers begin the survey work for this dam across the Krishna river in the year 1903.