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The 5 Biggest Dams in India

After independence India has made lot of progress in dams and water reservoirs, Today India is one of the world’s most prolific dam-builders. There are around 4300 large dams already constructed and many more in the pipeline, Almost half of which are more than twenty years old. These dams are major attraction of tourists from all over India.

Some facts about the Indian dams:
Tehri dam is the eighth highest dam in the world.
Idukki dam is the first Indian arch dam build across the Periyar river in Kerala and the largest arch dam in Asia.
Grand Anicut of Kallanai, located on Holy Cavery River in Tamil Nadu, is the oldest dam in the world.
Indira Sagar Dam has the Largest Reservoir in India followed by Nagarjunasagar and Gobind sagar reservoir.

भारत के पाँच प्रमुख एवम् विशालकाय बाँध.

Which is the Biggest/Largest dam in India?

Tehri Dam on Bhagirathi river is the biggest, highest and tallest dam in India and also the eighth highest dam in the world, located at Uttarakhand.

1. Tehri Dam – Uttarakhand

Tehri Dam

Tehri Dam located on the Bhagirathi River, Uttaranchal now become Uttarakhand. Tehri Dam is the highest dam in India,with a height of 261 meters and the eighth tallest dam in the world.
The high rock and earth-fill embankment dam first phase was completed in 2006 and other two phases are under construction. The Dam water reservoir use for irrigation, municipal water supply and the generation of 1,000 MW of hydroelectricity.

  • Height: 260 meters
  • Length: 575 meters
  • Type: Earth and rock-fill
  • Reservoir Capacity: 2,100,000 acre·ft
  • River: Bhagirathi River
  • Location: Uttarakhand
  • Installed capacity: 1,000 MW

2. Bhakra Dam – Himachal Pradesh

bakrana-ngal-dam

Bhakra Nangal Dam is a gravity dam across the Sutlej river Himachal Pradesh. Bhakra is the largest dam in India, with a height of 226 meters and second largest Dam in Asia. Its reservoir, known as the “Gobind Sagar Lake” it is the second largest reservoir in India, the first being Indira Sagar dam in MP.

  • Height: 226 meters
  • Length: 520 meters
  • Type: Concrete gravity
  • Reservoir Capacity: 7,501,775 acre·ft
  • River: Sutlej River
  • Location: Himachal Pradesh
  • Installed capacity: 1325 MW

3. Sardar Sarovar Dam – Gujarat

Sardar_sarovar_dam

Sardar Sarovar Dam also known as Narmada Dam is the largest dam to be built, with a height of 163 meters, over the Sacred Narmada River in Gujarat. Drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra will get irrigate by this project.

The gravity dam is the largest dam of Narmada Valley Project with power facilities up to 200 MW. The dam is meant to benefit the 4 major states of India Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

  • Height: 163 meters
  • Length:1,210 meters
  • Type: Gravity Dam
  • Reservoir Capacity: 7,701,775 acre·ft
  • River: Narmada River
  • Location: Gujarat
  • Installed capacity: 1,450 MW

Indian government has approved the proposal to raise the dam’s height from 121.9 metres to 138.7 metres, making it the second highest dam in the world after Grand Coulee in the US. The dam was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2017

4. Hirakud Dam – Odisha

Hirakud-Dam

Hirakud dam built across the Mahanadi River in tribal state Orissa. Hirakud Dam is one of the longest dams in the world about 26 km in length. There are two observation towers on the dam one is “Gandhi Minar” and another one is “Nehru Minar”.

The Hirakud Reservoir is 25 km long used as multipurpose scheme intended for flood control, irrigation and power generation. It was one of the major multipurpose river valley project after Independence.

  • Height: 60.96  meters
  • Length: 25.8 km
  • Type: Composite Dam
  • Reservoir Capacity: 4,779,965 acre·ft
  • River: Mahanadi River
  • Location: Odisha
  • Installed capacity: 307.5 MW

5. NagarjunaSagar Dam – Telangana/Andhra Pradesh

Nagarjuna-sagar-Dam
  • Height: 124 meters
  • Length:1,450 meters
  • Type: Masonry Dam
  • Reservoir Capacity: 9,371,845 acre·ft
  • River: Krishna River
  • Location: Telangana/Andhra Pradesh
  • Installed capacity: 816 MW

Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is the world’s largest masonry dam with a height of 124 meters, built across Krishna River in Telangana. Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is certainly the pride of India-considered one of the largest man-made lake in the world.

The 1.6 km long with 26 gates dam was symbol of modern India’s architectural and technological triumphs over nature. Today, Nagarjuna Sagar dam is one of the top 20 must see tourist destinations of Telangana state.

Biggest and Largest Dams in India by Height

There are total 8 major dams of India ranked at the world level by height and storage of water. Follow the link to know about the Tallest, highest,biggest, longest and largest dams in India by height – Click Here.

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