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Full Details of Victoria Dam Randenigala Rantembe Sanctuary, Sri Lanka

Victoria Randenigala Rantembe Sanctuary, Sri Lanka

 

 


Victoria Randenigala Rantambe Sanctuary is situated between the knuckles mountain range and the central mountains of Kandy. The Victoria Randenigala Rantembe Sanctuary safeguards the catchment basin of the three reservoirs it is named after, which are the country’s most important sources of hydro-electric power. This is the catchment area for the Victoria, Randenigala and Rantambe reservoirs that were built under the accelerated MahaweliDevelopment Scheme. The area enjoys protection as a sanctuary which comes under the purview of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and is 42,087 hectares in extent. The forested hills and the valleys as well as the large reservoirs and rivers make this area suitable for many species of forest birds and raptors.

 

 

 

The Birds at Victoria Randenigala Rantembe Sanctuary. Sri Lanka

 

Some of the birds are RufousBelliedHawk Eagle, Crested Serpent & Crested Hawk Eagles, Black-Winged Kite, Crested Honey Buzzard, Ceylon Jungle Fowl, Rufus Woodpecker, Common Iora, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Thick-Billed Flowerpecker, Black-Headed Cuckoo Shrike, Large Cuckoo Shrike, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Ceylon Grey Hornbill, Orange Minivet, Indian Pitta, Ceylon Swallow, House Swift, Forest Eagle Owl, Brown Fish Owl, Black Eagle, Green Leaf & Large-Billed Leaf Warblers and many more

 

 

Victoria Dam (Sri Lanka)

 

Victoria Dam is an arch dam located 130 mi (209 km) upstream of the Mahaweli River's mouth and 4 mi (6 km) from Teldeniya. It is named in honor of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, Empress of the British Empire.

 

Its main purposes are irrigation and hydroelectric power production. It is the tallest dam in Sri Lanka, and supports a 210 MW power station, the largest hydroelectric power station in the country. Construction of the dam commenced in 1978 funded by aid granted by the United Kingdom under the patronage of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, and was completed during the time of President Junius Richard Jayewardene and was ceremonially opened by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.

 

 

 

 

History of Victoria Dam, Sri Lanka


The Victoria Dam was constructed under the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Programme (AMDP). The project had been in planning for 30 years but was accelerated in 1977 to address economic difficulties within the country. The plan is designed to irrigate 365,000 ha (901,935 acres) of land and provide 600 MW of electricity. The Victoria Dam was originally proposed in 1964 after studies were completed by Canada's Huntings Technical Services and a team from the United Nations Development Program—Food and Agriculture Organization (UNDP-FAO). Construction of the dam was inaugurated on 14 August 1978, by the then-President Jayewardene with the implementation of the main structures beginning in 1980. Its completion was marked by a ceremony on 12 April 1985. Construction of the dam and tunnel was completed by the British Joint Venture of Balfour Beatty and Edmund Nuttall, while Costain Group carried out the construction of the power station. The consultant engineers on the project was Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners. The dam resettled about 30,000 people — four times the estimate.

 

 

 

The Victoria Dam and powerhouse, Sri Lanka


The dam measures 122 m (400 ft) tall, with a crest length of 520 m (1,706 ft), crest width of 6 m (20 ft), and a base width of 25 m (82 ft). The dam creates the Victoria Reservoir, which has a surface area of 22.7 km2 (8.8 sq mi), gross storage capacity of 722,000,000 m3 (2.55×1010 cu ft), and a catchment area of 1,869 km2 (722 sq mi).

Water from the dam is fed to the powerhouse at 07°12′00″N 80°48′21″E via a 5,646 m (18,524 ft) long tunnel, which houses three penstocks of 6.2 m (20.3 ft) diameter. These penstocks created a net head of 190 m (623 ft), feeding three 70 MW 12.5 kV turbines, which are capable of generating up to 780 GWh of electrical energy annually.

The dam consists of eight spillways, each with a width and height of 12.5 m (41 ft) and 6.5 m (21.3 ft), which automatically opens when water levels are high. The dam's gates, which need power only to close, won an award for "Innovative Design in Civil Engineering" by the Institution of Civil Engineers. The total effective width of the spillways is 100 m (328 ft), allowing a maximum discharge of 8,200 m3/s (289,580 cu ft/s). Two additional low-level sluices at the base of the dam allows the purging of accumulated silts behind the dam.