Foundation Of Bhakra Nangal Dam
Bhakra Nangal dam was completed in late 1963. The next stages were completed in the early ’70s. The initial construction of the dam was started by the governor of Punjab, Sir Louis Dane. A contract for this project was signed by the then Punjab Revenue Minister, Sir Chhotu Ram in November 1944 with Rajas of Bilaspur, and preliminary work began in 1946. The Nangal Dam is another Punjab dam below the Bhakra Dam. Sometimes, however, the two dams are collectively known as the Bhakra Nangal Dam, although they are two separate dams. The dam is 1,700 feet long and 30 feet wide. The 90 km long reservoir formed by Bhakra Dam covers an area of 168.35 km2. In terms of water volume, it is the third-largest water reservoir in India.
Bhakra Dam is a gravity arch dam on the Sutlej River in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The dam forms the Govind Sagar water-body. The Bhakra Nangal dams were among the first river valley development projects undertaken by India after independence, although the project was developed long before India became a free country.
Purpose For Building Bhakra Nangal Dam
Bhakra Dam was part of the larger Bhakra Nangal multi-purpose project to prevent flooding in the SatlujBias River Valley, provide irrigation to surrounding states and provide hydropower. In the following years, it also became a tourist destination due to its huge size and uniqueness. It also has four overflow valves which are only used when the tank exceeds the maximum level. Nangal Dam is a dam that is 10 km below Bhakra Dam. Bhakra Nangal Dam is approximately 1,700 feet long and 30 feet wide. The dam is located 116 km from Chandigarh, making it an ideal destination for tourist attractions and family vacations during holidays or weekends. The dam is also of great agricultural importance, providing irrigation water to farmers throughout Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The Bhakra Nangal dam is also used to generate electricity from hydropower plants. There are 10 generators, five on each side of the dam. These dams have been supplied and upgraded by various companies such as Andritz, Hitachi, and Sumitomo. Russia also helped to secure and modernize these dams. Bhakra Nangal Dam plays a key role in energy generation as the plant can generate approximately 1,325 MW of electricity. The generated electricity can be used to power various states such as Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, and Delhi.
Irrigation
The main application of the dam is irrigation and storage of rainwater. The dam provides irrigation water for Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh. The dam retains excess water during the rainy season and ensures controlled discharge throughout the year. It also prevents damage from monsoon floods. The Bhakra Channel powered by this dam irrigates 10 million acres (40,000 km2) of fields in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. The water flows from the Bhakra Dam below the Nangala Dam, where it is controlled and discharged into the Nangal-Heidel Canal, which later becomes mainline of Bhakra after Ganguwala and Kotla. The mainline of Bhakra is the channel that mainly supplies irrigation water for the state of Haryana.
Electricity Generation
The water from the Bhakra Dam is also used to provide electricity to the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh. There are ten hydroelectric power stations on each side. The generators for the power plant on the left side were mainly supplied by Hitachi in Japan and have been upgraded to the current capacity of Sumitomo, Hitachi, and Andritz.
The electricity generated by Bhakra Dam is shared among the partner states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, and Delhi.
Fishing
- The dam reservoir, Gobind Sagar, is home to many species of fish, including the endangered Mahseer. Commercial fishing by local fishermen is also common in Gobind Sagar.
Attributes Of Bhakra Nangal Dam.
The Bhakra Dam is built on the Sutlej River. It is the second-highest dam in Asia, approximately 207.26 meters after the Tehri Dam, which is approximately 261 meters high. The Tehri Dam is also located in India in the state of Uttarakhand.
The Gobind Sagar reservoir on the dam is able to hold up to 9.34 billion cubic meters of water, enough to flood all of Chandigarh, parts of Haryana, Punjab, and Delhi. Govind Sagar is a body of water 88 km long and 8 km wide. Bhakra Nangal Dam is the second-largest water reservoir in India after the Indira Sagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh in terms of water storage. Gobind Sagar Lake is a reservoir located in the Una and Bilaspur regions of Himachal Pradesh. It is created by the Bhakra dam. The reservoir is located on the Sutlej River and is named after Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru.
The Bhakra Nangal Dam, at 741 feet (226 m), is one of the world’s tallest gravity dams compared to the US’s largest dam, Oroville at 770 feet. Bhakra Dam was part of the larger, multi-purpose Bhakra Nangal project to prevent flooding in the Satluj Bias River Valley, provide irrigation to surrounding states and provide hydropower. In the following years, it also became a tourist destination due to its size and uniqueness. There are also four overflows that are only used when the tank exceeds the maximum allowable level. The Nangala Dam is a dam that is 10 km downstream. Bhakra Nangal Dam can hold a fairly excessive amount of monsoon water that can be discharged periodically throughout the year, thus minimizing the risk of flooding associated with monsoon rains. This redundant storage is important to avoid enormous damage to local communities and infrastructure across the region.
Administration Of Bhakra Nangal Dam
A body called the Bhakra Management Board (BMB) is appointed to manage, maintain and operate the firewall. The administrative body was established in 1966 and began operating on October 1, 1967.
Council members are appointed by the governments of India and the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Chandigarh.
On May 15, 1976, the Bhakra Governing Board was renamed the Bhakra Beas Governing Board to also manage the Bis River dams. The Bhakra Beas Board is responsible for the regulation and operation of Bhakra Dam, Dehar Hydropower Plant, Pong Dam, Gangwala Dam, and Boiler Power Plant. Bhakra Beas Board of Directors regulates, operates, and operates the Bhakra Dam, Dehar Hydropower, Pong Dam, Ganguval, and Kotla.
Benefits Of Bhakra Nangal Dam
- Bhakra Nangal dam is the fourth largest dam in India after the Tehri Dam , it attracts a large number of tourists who visit its reservoir and has attractive location although, for security reasons, visitors to Bhakra-Nangal Dam has been banned since 2009. but the ban has been lifted now for everyone. The Bhakra-Nangal Dam is the second tallest dam in India with height of 207.26 meters approximately and was the only dam in Asia to have a capacity to produce 1500 MW of power back in 2013. It is an architectural achievement of India that took almost 15 years to build after construction began around the country’s independence in 1948. Bhakra Nangal is also the world’s tallest gravity dam. Bhakra-Nangal Dam is an attraction not only for local residents but also for foreign travelers from all over the world. A large number of tourists visit this site to enjoy the visual aesthetics of the dam and surrounding communities. The massive shape has a couple of spots for households and vacationers to spend time. Multiple serene spots for picnics, fishing, boating, skiing, kayaking, and crusing were dispersed all through the place of the dam. Tourists additionally have the choice of experiencing jungle safari and paying respects to the temple of Naina Devi nearby.There are unique species of fish in the dam reservoir, which makes the dam a very suitable place for fishing. Along the Gobind Sagar you can see many fishermen actively fishing which can then be sold in local markets for profit and profit.The frequent important use of the Bhakra Nagal Dam is to provide irrigation. Bhakra Nangal Dam can supply irrigation water to over 10 million acres of farmland in various states in the country, including Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. This is of great benefit to farmers in these states as it provides them with a plentiful supply of water to grow crops, increase yields, and produce on their lands..Dams can create a reservoir to hold water, protect areas from floods, or generate clean electricity. The main application of Bhakra nagal dam is irrigation, rainwater storage. The dam provides irrigation water for Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Electricity. The water from Bhakra Dam is also used to provide electricity to the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.The accumulation of water in the lake ensures that energy can be stored when needed and when the water is used to generate electricity. During use, the electricity produced by the dams does not emit greenhouse gases and therefore does not cause pollution.Dams can create reservoirs for water, protect land from flooding or generate clean electricity.
Disbenefit Of Bhakra Nangal Dam
The Bhakra Nangal Project, like all other river valley projects, is suffering from siltation. Water from the top runs settles to the bottom of the tank, thus reducing its water storage capacity.
The reservoir’s capacity was 6.03 million acres in 1963, and it fell to 5.5 million acres in 1988, reducing over half a million acres in a short period of just 25 years.
The dam is very expensive to build and has to be built to a very high standard. The high cost of building dams means they need to operate for decades to become profitable. Dams do change the way rivers function. They can catch grouts by burying riverbeds where they breed their fish. Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitats can also get stuck behind dams. This adversely affects the creation and maintenance of more complex habitats (e.g. fissures, basins) downstream.
There are certain environmental problems caused by dams like changes to the earth’s rotation, soil erosion, the spread of disease, species extinction, waterlogging, siltation, siltation. The dams also physically block fish migration and change the overall biology of life in the river by altering the natural water flow. The reservoirs behind the dam can also lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions. Some dams may create a flooding risk if they experience any failure.
Top 13 Interesting Facts About Bhakra Nangal Dam
The number of tiles used in the main channel of Bhakra is so great that, if placed in a straight line, the length of the line thus formed will be seven times the length of the equator.
The Bhakra Nangal Project is something wonderful, wonderful, amazing, as you see it. Today’s Bhakra is a symbol of India’s progress. ” Nehru
About 14 million cubic meters of concrete and other building materials were used for this project. This material is more than twice the size of the great pyramids in Egypt.
70 million fines have been spent on the construction of the BhakraNangal canals.
2 million cubic meters of soil were dug for the construction of the canals of this project. This amount of soil is enough to build a road 6 meters wide and 1 meter high from New Delhi to New York.
The project helped produce an additional 1.3 million tonnes of grain per year, 0.8 million tonnes of cotton, 0.5 million tonnes of sugarcane and 0.1 million tonnes of oilseeds. No other river valley project in the world has this potential.
Bhakra Nagal Dam is the largest and most important multifunctional project, named after two dams built at Bhakra and Nangal on the Satuj River.
Bhakra Nagal Dam is a joint venture between the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan to use the precious Satluj water for the benefit of the states concerned.
Bhakra Dam is one of the highest gravity dams in the world. It was built on the Satuj River at the site of the Bhakra Gorge near Rupnagar (Ropar). The dam is 226 meters high, 518 meters long, and the maximum width at the base is 362 meters.
The dam creates a huge reservoir 88 km long and 8 km wide with a capacity of 986.8 cubic meters.
The Nangal-Heidel canal is 64.4 km long, 42.65 m wide and 6.28 m deep. It is one of the longest cemented canals in the world. It starts from the left bank of the river and flows along a rocky relief of a steep slope.
At a distance of 64 km there is a waterfall with a height of 70 meters. Its main function is to rotate the turbines of the power plants beneath Nangal Dam, but it also supplies water to Bhakra’s irrigation channels.
The length of the main Bhakra Channel is 174 km. The length of the canal and branch system is 1,104 km and 3,360 km, respectively. The total area of this canal system is approximately 27,000 hectares, and the irrigation area is approximately 15,000 hectares. Of these, 37.7% are in Punjab, 46.7% in Haryana and the remaining 15.6% in Rajasthan.
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Debangshu Goswami
Writer
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