Tehri Dam

The Tehri Dam is the highest dam in India and one of the highest in the world. It is a multi-purpose
rock and earth-fill embankment dam on the Bhagirathi Rivernear Tehri in Uttarakhand, India. It is
the primary dam of the THDC India 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 megawatts (1,300,000 hp) of hydroelectricity. The dam's 1,000 MW
variable-speed pumped-storage scheme is currently under construction with expected
commissioning in May 2018.

Technical description
Tehri Dam is a 260.5 m (855 ft) high rock and earth-fill embankment dam. Its length is 575 m
(1,886 ft), crest width 20 m (66 ft), and base width 1,128 m (3,701 ft). The dam creates a reservoir
of 4.0 cubic kilometres (3,200,000 acre⋅ft) with a surface area of 52 km2 (20 sq mi). The installed
hydrocapacity is 1,000 MW along with an additional 1,000 MW of pumped storage hydroelectricity.
The lower reservoir for the pumped-storage plant is created by the Koteshwar Dam downstream.
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. Power is distributed to
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh, Rajasthan
and Himachal Pradesh. 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 imperial gallons (1.2×106 m3) of drinking water per day to the industrialized areas
of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Environmental issues
The Tehri Dam has been the object of protests by environmental organizations and local people
of the region. V.D. Saklani, lawyer and founder of the Anti-Tehri Dam Struggle Committee, was
quick to point out the consequences associated to the large project. Environmental
activist Sunderlal Bahuguna led the Anti-Tehri Dam movement from 1980s till 2004. The protest
was against the displacement of town inhabitants and environmental consequence of the weak
ecosystem.
In addition to the human rights concerns, the project has spurred concerns about the environmental
consequences of locating such a large dam in the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan foothills.
There are further concerns regarding the dam's geological stability. The Tehri dam is in the Central
Himalayan Seismic Gap, a major geologic fault zone. This region was the site of a
6.8 magnitude earthquake in October 1991, with an epicenter 53 km (33 mi) from the dam. Dam
proponents claim that the complex is designed to withstand an earthquake of 8.4 magnitude, but
some seismologists say that earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.5 or more could occur in this
region. Were such a catastrophe to occur, the potentially resulting dam-break would submerge
numerous towns downstream, whose populations total near half a million.
The relocation of more than 100,000 people from the area has led to protracted legal battles over
resettlement rights and, ultimately, resulted in the project's delayed completion.
Since 2005, filling of the reservoir has led to the reduced flow of Bhagirathi water from the normal
1,000 cu ft/s (28 m3/s) to a mere 200 cu ft/s (5.7 m3/s). This reduction has been central to local
protest against the dam, since the Bhagirathi is considered part of the sacred Ganges whose
waters are crucial to Hindu beliefs. At some points during the year, the tampering with Bhagirathi
waters means this tributary stops flowing. This has created resentments among many Hindus, who
claim that the sanctity of the Ganges has been compromised for the generation of electricity. The
officials say that when the reservoir is filled to its maximum capacity the flow of the river will again
become normal. In spite of concerns and protestation, operation of the Tehri Dam continues.
Sardar Sarovar Dam
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on the Narmada river near Navagam, Gujarat in India.
Four Indian states, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Rajasthan, receive water and
electricity supplied from the dam. The foundation stone of the project was laid out by Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru on 5 April 1961. The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme
to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity. The dam was inaugurated by Prime Minister
Modi on 17 September 2017.
One of the 30 dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest structure
to be built. It is one of the largest dams in the world. It is a part of the Narmada Valley Project, a
large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of
large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada river. Following a number of
controversial cases before the Supreme Court of India (1999, 2000, 2003), by 2014 the Narmada
Control Authority had approved a series of changes in the final height – and the associated
displacement caused by the increased reservoir, from the original 80 m (260 ft) to a final 163 m
(535 ft) from foundation. The project will irrigate more than 18,000 km2 (6,900 sq mi), most of it
in drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra.
The dam's main power plant houses six 200 MW Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity and
include a pumped-storage capability. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main canal
contains five 50 MW Kaplan turbine-generators. The total installed capacity of the power facilities
is 1,450 MW.

Environmental issues
The dam is one of India's most controversial, and its environmental impact and net costs and
benefits are widely debated.[citation needed] The World Bank was initially funding SSD, but withdrew in
1994. The Narmada Dam has been the centre of controversy and protests since the late 1980s.
One such protest takes centre stage in the Spanner Films documentary Drowned Out (2002),
which follows one tribal family who decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for
the Narmada Dam. An earlier documentary film is called A Narmada Diary (1995) by Anand
Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru. The efforts of Narmada Bachao Andolan ("Save Narmada
Movement") to seek "social and environmental justice" for those most directly affected by the
Sardar Sarover Dam construction feature prominently in this film. It received the (Filmfare Award
for Best Documentary-1996).
The figurehead of much of the protest is Medha Patkar, the leader of the NBA The movement was
cemented in 1989, and received the Right Livelihood Awardin 1991.
In an opinion piece in The Guardian, the campaign led by the NBA activists was accused of holding
up the project's completion and of even physically attacking local people who accepted
compensation for moving.
Support for the protests also came from Indian author Arundhati Roy, who wrote "The Greater
Common Good", an essay reprinted in her book The Cost of Living, in protest of the Narmada Dam
Project. In the essay, Roy states:
Big Dams are to a Nation's "Development" what Nuclear Bombs are to its Military Arsenal. They
are both weapons of mass destruction. They're both weapons Governments use to control their
own people. Both Twentieth Century emblems that mark a point in time when human intelligence
has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They're both malignant indications of civilisation turning
upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the link—the understanding—between
human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the intelligence that connects eggs to
hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life and the earth to human existence.

Height increases
• In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be
raised to 88 m (289 ft) from the initial 80 m (260 ft).
• In October 2000 again, in a 2-to-1 majority judgment in the Supreme Court, the government
was allowed to construct the dam up to 90 m (300 ft)
• In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam to
95 m (312 ft).
• In March 2004, the Authority allowed a 15 m (49 ft) height increase to 110 m (360 ft).
• In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to be
increased from 110.64 m (363.0 ft) to 121.92 m (400.0 ft). This came after 2003 when the
Supreme Court of India refused allow the height of the dam to increase again.
• In August 2013, heavy rains raised the reservoir level to 131.5 m (431 ft), which forced 7,000
villagers upstream along the Narmada River to relocate
• On June 2014, Narmada Control Authority gave the final clearance to raise the height from
121.92 m (400.0 ft) metres to 138.68 m (455.0 ft)
• The Narmada Control Authority decided on 17 June 2017 to raise the height of the Sardar
Sarovar Dam to its fullest height 163 meter by ordering the closure of 30 Gates

Almatti Dam
The Almatti Dam is a hydroelectric project on the Krishna River in North Karnataka, India which
was completed in July 2005. The target annual electric output of the dam is 560 MU (or GWh).
The Almatti Dam is the main reservoir of the Upper Krishna Irrigation Project; the 290 MW power
station is located on the right side of the Almatti Dam. The facility uses vertical kaplan turbines:
five 55MW generators and one 15MW generator. Water is released in to the Narayanpur
reservoir after using for power generation to serve the downstream irrigation needs. Two separate
facilities namely, Almatti 1 Powerhouse and Almatti II Powerhouse each separated by distance do
provide power generation capabilities.
During the initial stages of the project, estimated costs were projected as Rs.14.70 billion, but
following the transfer of project's management to the Karnataka Power Corporation
Limited (KPCL), the estimated cost was reduced by over fifty percent to Rs. 6.74 billion. The KPCL
eventually completed the project at an even lower cost of Rs. 5.20 billion.[citation needed] The entire dam
was finished in less than forty months, with construction ending in July 2005. The dam is located
on the edge of Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. Geographically, it is located in the Bijapur district, but
large areas of Bagalkot district have also been submerged due to filling of the reservoir. The dam
holds a gross water storage capacity of 123.08 TMC at 519 meters MSL.
The full reservoir level of Almatti dam was originally restricted to 519 meters MSL by the supreme
court of India. The Krishna River conflict between Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
and Maharashtra was resolved by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal and the dam was authorized to be
raised to the height of 524 meters MSL with nearly 200 TMC gross storage capacity.[5] 26 different
Radial spillway gates are housed in the Dam.