2. What is a dam ????
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or
underground streams. Dams generally
serve the primary purpose of retaining
water, while other structures such
asfloodgates or levees (also known
as dikes) are used to manage or prevent
water flow into specific land
regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage
hydroelectricityare often used in
conjunction with dams to generate
electricity. A dam can also be used to
collect water or for storage of water which
can be evenly distributed between
3. Types of dams
Arch dams
Gravity dams
Embankment dams
Rock-fill dams
Earth-fill dams
Saddle dam
Check dam
Dry dam
Underground dam
Tailings dam
Beaver dams
4. Uses of dams
1. To provide a supply of water for towns, cities
and mining sites
2. To contain and store waste (tailings) from
mines
3. To provide a supply of water for the irrigation
of crops
4. To generate electricity in hydro-electric power
stations
5. To help control or mitigate floods
5. Many dams are multipurpose and most dams have
at least some flood mitigation effect in addition
to their primary purpose. Dams built specifically
for flood control may have some of their storage
capacity kept empty during normal river flow
conditions so that space is available to store excess
water inflow under flood conditions. The flood
mitigation effect of a dam is such that the
downstream river height at the peak of the flood is
reduced but, after the peak has passed, the river
levels usually remain high for a longer period
than would have been the case if the dam had not
been built. This is because excess flood water is
only stored behind the dam temporarily and is
8. Nagarjuna Sagar Dam
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is the world's
largest masonry dam built across Krishna
River in Nagarjuna Sagar, Nalgonda
District of Andhra Pradesh, India, between
1955 and 1967. The dam contains the
Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir with a capacity
of up to 11,472 million cubic metres. The
dam is 490 ft (150 m). tall and 1.6 km
long with 26 gates which are 42 ft (13 m).
wide and 45 ft (14 m). tall. Nagarjuna
Sagar was the earliest in the series of large
infrastructure projects initiated for
the Green Revolution in India; it also is one
of the earliest multi-purpose irrigation and
hydro-electric projects in India.
9. Sardar Sarovar Dam
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on
the Narmada
River near Navagam, Gujarat,India. It is the
largest dam and part of the Narmada Valley
Project, a large hydraulic engineering project
involving the construction of a series of
large irrigation and hydroelectricmulti-
purpose dams on the Narmada River. The
project took form in 1979 as part of a
development scheme to increase irrigation and
produce hydroelectricity.
10. 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 9.34 billion cubic meters 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.
11. Krishna Raja Sagara
Krishna Raja Sagara also popularly known as KRS is the
name of both a lake and the dam that creates it. It is located
close to the settlement ofKrishnarajasagara. The dam is
across Kaveri River, in Mandya District near Mysore in
Karnataka state, India. There is an ornamental garden
attached to the dam, called Brindavan Gardens.
The dam was built across river Kaveri, the life giving river
for the Mysore and Mandya districts, in 1924. Apart from
being the main source of water for irrigation in the most
fertile Mysore and Mandya, the reservoir is the main source
of drinking water for all of Mysore city and almost the
whole of Bangalore city, the capital of the state
of Karnataka.
12. Gandhi Sagar Dam
• The Gandhi Sagar Dam is one of the four dams built
on India's Chambal River. The dam is located in
the Mandsaur district of the state of Madhya Pradesh.
It is a masonry gravity dam, standing 62.17 metres
(204.0 ft) high, with a gross storage capacity of 7.322
billion cubic metres from a catchment area of
22,584 km2 (8,720 sq mi). The dam's foundation
stone was laid by then-Prime Minister of India Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru on 7 March 1954, and construction
was completed in 1960. The dam sports a 115
MW hydroelectric power station at its toe, with five 23
MW generating units each providing a total energy
generation of about 564 GWh.
13. Indirasagar Dam
The Indirasagar Dam is a multipurpose key
project of Madhya Pradesh on the Narmada
River at Narmadanagar in the Khandwa
district of Madhya Pradesh in India. The
foundation stone of the project was laid by
late Smt Indira Gandhi, former Prime
Minister of India on 23 October 1984. The
construction of main dam started in 1992.
The down stream projects of ISP
areOmkareshwar, Maheshwar and Sardar
Sarovar Project.
14. Koyna Dam
The Koyna Dam is one of the
largest dams in Maharashtra, India. It is a rubble-
concrete dam constructed on Koyna River which rises
in Mahabaleshwar, a hillstation in Sahyadri ranges. It
is located in Koyna Nagar, Satara district, nestled in
the Western Ghats on the state highway
between Chiplun and Karad.
The main purpose of dam is to
provide hydroelectricity with some irrigation in
neighboring areas. Today the Koyna Hydroelectric
Project is the largest completed hydroelectric power plant
in India having a total installed capacity of 1,920 MW.
Due to its electricity generating potential Koyna river is
considered as the 'life line of Maharashtra'.
15. Hirakud Dam
Hirakud Dam is built across the Mahanadi River,
about 15 km from Sambalpur in the state
of Orissa in India. Built in 1957, the dam is one of
the world's longest earthen dam. Behind the dam
extends a lake, Hirakud Reservoir, 55 km long.
Hirakud Dam is the longest man-made dam 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.
16. 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.
17. Pong Dam
The Pong Dam, also known as the Beas Dam,
is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Beas
River just upstream of Talwara in the state
of Himachal Pradesh, India. The purpose of the
dam is water storage for irrigation
and hydroelectric power generation. As the
second phase of the Beas Project, construction
on the dam began in 1961 and was completed
in 1974. At the time of its completion, the
Pong Dam was the tallest of its type in
India. The lake created by the dam, Maharana
Pratap Sagar, became a renowned bird
sanctuary.
18. 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 run-of-
the-river and 1,000 MW pumped storage
hydroelectricity are under construction.
19. Rihand Dam
• Rihand Dam is a concrete gravity dam located
at Pipri in Sonbhadra District in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is on the
border of Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. It is on the Rihand
River which is the tributary of the Son River.
• Rihand dam is a concrete gravity dam with a length of 934.21 m.
The maximum height of the dam is 91.44 m and was constructed
during period 1954-62. The dam comprises 61 independent blocks
and ground joints. The powerhouse is situated at the toe of the dam,
with installed capacity of 300 MW (6 units of 50 MW each). The
F.R.L. of the dam is 268.22 m and it impounds 8.6 Million Acreft
of water.
20. Konar Dam
Konar dam is the second of the four multi-purpose dams
included in the first phase of the Damodar Valley
Corporation.. It was constructed across the Konar River,
a tributary of the Damodar River in Hazaribagh
district in the Indian state of Jharkhand and opened in
1955. The place has scenic beauty and has been
developed as a recreational spot.
Konar Dam is 4,535 metres (14,879 ft) long and
48.77 metres (160.0 ft) high. The reservoir covers an
area of 27.92 sq km.