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Review key Major Dams & Multipurpose River Valley Projects in India exam facts and rate your mastery to track revision.
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#1
The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), established in 1948 on the model of the US Tennessee Valley Authority, was India's first multipurpose river project.
#2
Tehri Dam on the Bhagirathi River in Uttarakhand is the highest dam in India, standing at a height of 260.5 metres.
#3
Bhakra Nangal Dam on the Sutlej River is a major concrete gravity dam that impounds the Govind Sagar reservoir.
#4
Hirakud Dam on the Mahanadi River in Odisha is one of the world's longest earthen dams, measuring 25.8 kilometres in total length.
#5
Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada River and Nagarjuna Sagar on the Krishna River represent key interstate irrigation and hydroelectricity structures.
#6
The DVC encompasses four major storage dams constructed between 1953 and 1959: Tilaiya and Maithon on the Barakar River, and Konar and Panchet on the Damodar River.
#7
Bhakra Dam stands 226 metres high in Himachal Pradesh and feeds the extensive Bhakra canal system that irrigates agricultural land in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
#8
Hirakud Dam impounds a 743-square-kilometre reservoir on the Mahanadi and controls severe seasonal floods across the coastal delta of Odisha.
#9
Sardar Sarovar Dam in Navagam, Gujarat, stands 163 metres high, feeding the 458-kilometre Narmada Main Canal that supplies water to Saurashtra and Rajasthan.
#10
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, constructed across the Krishna River on the Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border, is the world's largest masonry dam by volume, creating Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir.
#11
Idukki Dam in Kerala is a 168.9-metre double-curvature parabolic thin arch dam constructed across the Periyar River between the Kuravan and Kurathi granite hills.
#12
The Indira Sagar Project on the Narmada River in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, impounds the largest water storage reservoir in India with a capacity of 12.22 billion cubic metres.
#13
The Koyna Dam in Maharashtra, built across the Koyna River, experienced a major 6.3 magnitude reservoir-induced earthquake on December 11, 1967.
#14
Mullaperiyar Dam, a 176-foot gravity dam built in 1895 in Kerala, is operated by Tamil Nadu under a 999-year lease agreement signed during the British Raj.
#15
The Parliament of India enacted the Dam Safety Act, 2021, establishing the National Committee on Dam Safety to regulate and inspect over 5,300 large dams nationwide.
Subject Specialist Commentary
Analytical perspective & practical exam advice from the Master10 academic board
Multipurpose river valley projects in India were conceived after independence to harness water resources for flood control, irrigation, and hydroelectric generation. Jawaharlal Nehru famously called these hydraulic engineering marvels the "Temples of Modern India." Starting in 1948 with the Damodar Valley Corporation, modeled after America's Tennessee Valley Authority, India constructed massive storage dams across major rivers to ensure national food security and support industrial development in newly expanding urban centers.
Examiners in SSC CGL and UPSC Prelims frequently test dams by matching river names, dam types, and state locations. A common question trap confuses dam superlatives: Tehri Dam on the Bhagirathi River in Uttarakhand is India's highest dam, while Hirakud Dam on the Mahanadi River in Odisha is the longest earthen dam. Also remember that the famous Bhakra Dam is a concrete gravity dam built on the Sutlej River impounding the Gobind Sagar reservoir. For quick exam revision, link DVC to the Barakar and Damodar rivers.
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