Kadra Dam is located in the district of Uttara Kannada in the state of Karnataka in India. The dam is constructed across the River Kalinadi. The basic objective to construct this dam was to start about a hydroelectric project for the supply of water to turbines of electric power generating station. KPCL completed the project. The Kadra Dam is an integral part of the Kaiga Project that incorporates several innovative design features - common as well as site specific.

Kaiga is situated upstream at the left bank of the Kali River upstream of the Kadra Dam.

The Kadra reservoir provides adequate water to meet the total plant water requirement. While finalizing the location of Kaiga project, the safety aspects relating to the unlikely event of dam failure and flooding of the site was acutely scrutinized and thought over. The grade level of the Kadra dam site has been chosen considering several safety aspects and the maintainability and accessibility of the Kadra dam is also ensured.

The turbine building of the Kadra Dam is situated directly opposite to the reactor building. The safety-related structures such as reactor auxiliary building, reactor building, diesel generator building, control building and others are situated in a position so as to provide safety against the low path turbine breakdown projectile. A separate building of the control building is built to include the SSE intensities along with various safety and safety support systems. Class III emergency power requirements are catered by the three diesel generators provided for each of the unit. These generators are housed in two separate safety related diesel generator buildings one located on the north side and the other on the south side of the control building.

Reactor auxiliary building, featuring mainly the heavy water systems and other safety-related systems are situated adjacent to the reactor building of the Kadra Dam. The site of Kadra Dam normally has a very heavy monsoon, measuring up to approximately 4600 mm rainfall spread over from the months of June to September. The atmospheric temperature varies from around 15°C to 42°C, with relative humidity ranging from 66% to 80%. There is no fishing or agricultural activity in this reservoir; however the surroundings are a treat to the eyes.

Even if the Kadra dam did not entertain fishing and agriculture, still the site of the dam is something to be enjoyed by nature lovers and general tourists. One of the major attractions of this place is the island of Basavaraja Durga. It is located at a distance of about one kilometer from main land off Honnavar in Karnataka. Several other attractions close to this dam are Devbagh Island, Sanyasi Island, Dandeli Wild life Sanctuary, Kurumgad Island, Honnavar Temple, Benne Hole Falls, etc.