Bhakra dam Bhakra dam is a concrete gravity dam across the Sutlej River, and is near the border

between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The dam, located at a gorge near the (now submerged) upstream Bhakra village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, is Asia's second highest at 225.55 m (740 ft) high next to the 261m Tehri Dam also in India. The length of the dam (measured from the road above it) is 518.25 m; it is 9.1 m broad. Its reservoir, known as the "Gobind Sagar", stores up to 9340 million cu m of water, enough to drain the whole of Chandigarh, parts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi. The 90 km long reservoir created by the Bhakra Dam is spread over an area of 168.35 km2. In terms of storage of water, it withholds the second largest reservoir in India, the first being Indira Sagar dam in Madhya Pradesh with capacity of 12.22 billion cu m. Described as 'New Temple of Resurgent India' by Jawaharlal Nehru,[1] the first prime minister of India, the dam attracts tourists from all over India. Nangal dam is another dam downstream of Bhakra dam. Sometimes both the dams together are called Bhakra-Nangal dam though they are two separate dams.

History
The Bhakra-Nangal multipurpose dams were among the earliest river valley development schemes undertaken by India after independence though the project had been conceived long before India became a free nation. Preliminary works commenced in 1946. Construction of the dam started in 1948, Jawahar Lal Nehru poured the first bucket of concrete into the foundations of Bhakra on 17 November 1955 [2] and the dam was completed by the end of 1963. Successive stages were completed by the early 1970s. Initially, the construction of the dam was started by Sir Louis Dane, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. But the project got delayed and was restarted soon after Independence. In October 1963 at the ceremony to mark the dedication of the BhakraNangal Project to the Nation, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said, "This dam has been built with the unrelenting toil of man for the benefit of mankind and therefore is worthy of worship. May you call it a Temple or a Gurdwara or a Mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence".

Hirakud Dam
Hirakud Dam (Odia: ) is built across the Mahanadi River, about 15 km from Sambalpur in the state of Odisha in India. Built in 1957, the dam is one of the world's longest earthen dam.[1] Behind the dam extends a lake, Hirakud Reservoir, 55 km long. Hirakud Dam is one of the longest dams in the world, about 16 mi (26 km) in length. It is one of the first major multipurpose river valley project started after India's independence. The name of the dam is mostly mis-pronounced in North India as Hirakund which is actually Hirakud.

Before the devastating floods of 1937, Sir M. Visveswararya proposed a detailed investigation for storage reservoirs in the Mahanadi basin to tackle the problem of floods in the Mahanadi delta. In 1945, under the chairmanship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the then Member of Labour, it was decided to invest in the potential benefits of controlling the Mahanadi for multi-purpose use. The Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission took up the work.[2] On 15 Mar 1946, Sir Howthrone Lewis, then the Governor of Odisha, laid the foundation stone of the Hirakud Dam. A project report was submitted to the government in June 1947. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the first batch of concrete on 12 April 1948. The dam was completed in 1953 and was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 January 1957. The total cost of the project was Rs. 100.02 crores in 1957. Power generation along with agricultural irrigation started in 1956, achieving full potential in 1966

Rana Pratap Sagar Dam

The Rana Pratap Sagar Dam is a gravity masonry dam of 53.8 metres (177 ft) height built on the Chambal River at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan in India. It is part of integrated scheme of a cascade development of the river involving four projects starting with the Gandhi Sagar Dam in the upstream reach (48 kilometres (30 mi) upstream) in Madhya Pradesh and the Jawahar Sagar Dam on the downstream (28 kilometres (17 mi) downstream) with a terminal structure of the Kota Barrage (28 kilometres (17 mi) further downstream) in Rajasthan for irrigation.[1][2][3] The direct benefit from the dam is hydropower generation of 172 MW (with four units of 43 MW capacity each) at the dam toe powerhouse adjoining the spillway, with releases received from the Gandhi Sagar Dam and the additional storage created at the dam by the intercepted catchment area. The estimated generation potential of 473.0 GWh of generation has been exceeded in most years since its commissioning. The Power Station was officially declared open on 9 February 1970 by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. The dam and power plant are named after the warrior Maharaja Rana Pratap of Rajasthan.

History
An integrated development planning was launched in 1953, envisaging development of the irrigation and hydropower potential (386 MW from the three power stations) as part of the Chambal River Valley Development. This planning was done during the First Five-Year Plan, 19511956 launched by the Government of India, after India attained independence in August 1947; the Chambal River with annual flow of 3.4 million acre feet had till then remained untapped from any major developmental works.[6]) The planning involved utilization of the hydropower potential of the river to harness the drop of 625 metres (2,051 ft) available in the Chambal River from its source in Mhow in Madhya Pradesh up to the Kota city, which marks the exit of the river from its gorge section into the plains in Rajasthan.[7][8] While the first stage involved construction of the Gandhi Sagar Dam for creation of storage of 7322 million cubic meters (MCM) and power generation and utilization of the stored waters for irrigation from the Kota Barrage in Rajasthan was initiated in 195354, the second stage

development involved utilization of the water released from the Gandhi Sagar Dam through a second dam structure (48 kilometres (30 mi), downstream at Rawatbhata in Chittorgarh District of Rajasthan envisaging additional storage from the intermediate catchment below Gandhi Sagar Dam. Additional storage at this dam also envisaged increase of irrigation benefits from the Kota barrage from Stage I potential of 445,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) to 567,000 hectares (1,400,000 acres). The main benefit at this dam envisaged power generation at a dam toe powerhouse with installation of power plants of 172 MW capacity with four turbo generators of 43 MW capacity each. The project was completed in 1970. The power generated at this dam is shared equally with Madhya Pradesh, as the Gandhi Sagar dam provides the stored waters for utilization at this dam

Tehri Dam
The Tehri Dam is a multi-purpose rock and earth-fill embankment dam on the Bhagirathi River near Tehri in Uttarakhand, India. It is the primary dam of the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd. and the Tehri hydroelectric complex. Phase 1 was completed in 2006, the Tehri Dam withholds a reservoir for irrigation, municipal water supply and the generation of 1,000 MW of hydroelectricity. Two more phases with an additional 400 MW and 1,000 MWpumped storage hydroelectricity are under construction he dam is a 260 metres (850 ft) high rock and earth-fill embankment dam. Its length is 575 metres (1,886 ft), crest width 20 metres (66 ft), and base width 1,128 metres (3,701 ft). The dam creates a reservoir of 2.6 cubic kilometres (2,100,000 acreft) with a surface area of 52 square kilometres (20 sq mi). The installed hydrocapacity is 1,000 MW along with an additional 1,000 MW of pumped storage hydroelectricity. The Tehri Dam and the Tehri Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Plant are part of the Tehri Hydropower Complex which also includes the 400 MW Koteshwar Dam downstream.[1] The complex will afford irrigation to an area of 270,000 hectares (670,000 acres), irrigation stabilization to an area of 600,000 hectares (1,500,000 acres), and a supply of 270 million gallons of drinking water per day to the industrialized areas of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.