The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) recently commissioned an emergency study after detecting that the main wall of the Bhakra dam on the Sutlej river along the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border is tilting outward beyond permissible limits.
About Bhakra Dam:
It is a concrete gravity dam across the Sutlej River.
It is located at a gorge near the upstream Bhakra village in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh.
It is near the border between Punjab and 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 Tehri Dam.
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).
The dam created the massive Gobind Sagar reservoir and plays a crucial role in irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power generation for Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh.
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 Sometimes both the dams together are called the Bhakra-Nangal Dam, though they are two separate dams.
It serves as an auxiliary dam to channel the water released from Bhakra Dam to two powerhouses.
The installed capacity of Bhakra Right Bank Power House is 785 MW, and that of Bhakra Left Bank Power House is 630 MW.
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