River(Impounds): Sutlej River
Location: Bilaspurji, Himachal Pradesh, India
Opening: 1963
Height: 226 m
Length: 520 m
Total Capacity: 9.340 km3
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, Jawaharlal Nehru poured the first bucket of concrete into the foundations of Bhakra on 18 November 1955 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 under the chief architect Rai Bahadur Kunwar Sen Gupta. In October 1963 at the ceremony to mark the dedication of the Bhakra–Nangal 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”. On 22 October 2013, the Government of India approved the release of a commemorative stamp to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bhakra Dam.