Homage to our dams, the modern temples
PEOPLE praise Jawaharlal Nehru the most for his strict adherence to democratic values and laying the foundations of modern India by initiating many mega projects, like the steel plants in Rourkela, Bhilai and Durgapur. But his greatest contribution has been to boost India’s agricultural production by building massive multipurpose storage dams across major rivers of India.
Nehru realised that our canals carried full discharge of water during three months of the rainy season, but a scanty discharge during the dry period of nine months and only by building storage reservoirs, with the help of big dams, could floodwaters be stored, to be later used for irrigation round the year.
Accordingly, he directed the Central Water and Power Commission to take up these projects urgently. This drive resulted in the construction of a large number of dams across India, such as Bhakra Dam, Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and Hirakud Dam, to name a few. These dams proved to be a boon for the farmers of India, later heralding the arrival of the Green Revolution in the 1960s, besides generating a substantial amount of hydropower as a byproduct. Imagine, the total hydropower generation capacity in India in 1947 was only 1350 MW!
Nehru took a special interest in the construction of Bhakra Dam, visiting the site 13 times to streamline the progress, for it was going to be the highest concrete gravity dam in the world a total height of 550 ft from the riverbed, plus a foundation depth of 190 ft. Finally, he extolled the greatness of this mighty project at the time of its inauguration in October 1963, remarking: “Bhakra Nangal project is something tremendous. Bhakra, the new temple of resurgent India, is the symbol of India’s progress.”
The PMs who succeeded Nehru did not show a keen interest in similar projects and after his death in 1964, only four storage dams were constructed the Narmada Dam, Indira Sagar Dam, Ranjit Sagar Dam and Tehri Dam. Haryana was very unfortunate as the construction of the Kesao Dam across a major Yamuna tributary could not start during Nehru’s time. As a result, almost the entire flood flow of the Yamuna is moving wastefully into the sea.
Being a civil engineer, I too look at storage dams as temples of modern India. Consequently, this month I revisited the three dams in Punjab the Bhakra Dam across the Sutlej, Ranjit Sagar Dam across the Ravi and Pong Dam across the Beas river to pay my obeisance at the altars of these great temples.
The panoramic view from the tops of the three dams, presenting the vast stretch of reservoirs and the surrounding hills, is simply unbelievable. Devta represents a deity who gives you some bounty. Likewise, the great dams of India give us great bounties irrigation water, electricity, groundwater recharge, fish culture, tourism, freedom from floods and moderation of temperature. It is because of these bounties or benedictions that these dams are deemed as the great temples of resurgent India.
