Marikanave project, a scheme for damming up the waters that flowed through the gorge formed the largest artificial lake in India was one of the largest in the world. The lake is eighteen miles long and covers an area of over 30 square miles. Mr.Dalal was the superintending Engineer. The dam is 142 ft high with 20ft foundation making it 162ft in all. The width of the gorge was 240ft and the dam is 1330 ft in length and 15ft wide. It was one of largest of its kind at that time. But it was completed only around 1920. It is wrong to say Bangalore Received water from this lake. After the untimely death of the Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar in 1894, His wife the Regent Queen took many measures to perpetuate his memory. One of them was to provide piped water for the citizens of Bangalore. The then Diwan Shesdri Iyer got the hEsragatta TAnk enlarged and it was named as Chamarajendra Reservoir ( Alas! it seems to have been long forgotten. So was another water work named after him by his Son Maharaja Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV : Chamaraja Sagara for the Thippagondana Halli Reservoir. Even Cubbon Park was named as Chamarajendra Park - again without success, despiet having his statue theer). Chamarajendra Resrvoir was built at a cost of Rs.20,78,641 and water was pumped for the first time on June 23, 1896 ! Even Civil and Military Station (Bangalore cantonment) got benefited by this scheme. For a long time old Bangaloreans called as Shesdari Iyer's Coffee ! Chamarajendra Reservoir ran dry for one year in 1923 thus the Government was forced to look in to alternative sources, which ultimately lead to construction of Chamaraja Sagara which was pressed into service on March 15, 1933 !