The river Tunga is one of the major East flowing rivers along with Bhadra. It takes its origin in Western Ghats near Sringeri and flows eastwards to join river Bhadra at a place in Shimoga District and further flows as Tungabhadra, a major tributory to river Krishna.

SEW Infrastructure Ltd, executes the scheme which contemplates lifting of 15 TMC of water from Upper Tunga Dam constructed across river Tunga and lifting the water into a lead off canal about 15KM long to divert water from Tunga to Bhadra reservoir for further diversion to Upper Bhadra Lift Irrigation Scheme.