Bhakra Dam

Bhakra Dam Latest News

Cutting across political lines, all Punjab parties recently unanimously decided not to spare a single drop of additional water to Haryana from the Bhakra dam.

About Bhakra Dam

• It is a concrete gravity dam across the Sutlej River and is near the border between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
• It is located at a gorge near the upstream Bhakra village in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh.
• It is the highest straight gravity dam in the world, with a height of about 207.26 meters.
• It is Asia’s second tallest dam, next to the 261m Tehri Dam, also in India. 
• It has a length of 518.25 (1,700 ft) meters and a width of 9.1 meters (30ft) approximately.
• History:
  • The Bhakra Dam is one of the earliest river valley development schemes undertaken by India after independence. 
  • The construction of this dam started in 1948, when Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, poured the first bucket of concrete into the foundations of Bhakra. 
  • The dam was completed by the end of 1963.
  • Bhakra Dam was described as the ‘New Temple of Resurgent India’ by Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Operation and maintenance of the Bhakra dam is done by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).
• Its reservoir, known as the “Gobind Sagar”, stores up to 9.34 billion cubic meters of water. 
  • The 90 km long reservoir created by the Bhakra Dam is spread over an area of 168.35 sq.km. 
  • In terms of storage of water, it is the second largest reservoir in India, the first being Indira Sagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 12.22 billion cu m.
• Nangal Dam is another dam downstream of Bhakra Dam. Sometimes both the dams together are called the Bhakra-Nangal Dam though they are two separate dams.

Source: NIE