Bhakra Dam is a solid concrete barrier that measures 740 feet top to bottom and 1,700 feet across the Sutlej River gorge in northern India. Bhakra is a "gravity" dam: the weight of the concrete in the structure provides the resistance necessary to contain the reservoir behind it. Bhakra is a straight gravity dam that runs straight across the gorge, as compared to Hoover Dam, a curved gravity dam that projects a convex curve into its reservoir.
Sutlej River
The 850-mile Sutlej River arises on the Tibetan Plateau at 18,500 feet elevation and flows into the Punjab (Five Rivers) district of northern India. Plate tectonics built the Himalayas 40 million years ago. As the land rose around it, the river remained near its same level and carved a trans-Himalayan river gorge. Bhakra Dam and Govindsagar Reservoir behind it are at the lower end of the gorge, where the river enters the Indus-Ganges plains. The 22,000-square-mile watershed above the dam averages 35 inches annual rainfall. The reservoir feeds irrigation canals for farms on semiarid plains.
First Reconnaissance
Britain's lieutenant governor of the Punjab, Sir Louis Dane, surveyed the trans-Himalayan gorges for a water reservoir and hydroelectric site in 1908, but funding was not available. In 1915, F.E. Gwyther, a chief engineer supervising the Punjab Irrigation Department's canals, revived the plan. By 1919, a project report suggested a dam at Bhakra, plus two new canals and expansion of an existing canal. Instead, the Satlej Valley Project was funded to build "inundation canals" that were fed by annual floods.
Recommendations
In 1924, an oil company geologist reviewed the suggested dam site at Bhakra and recommended excavations to expose bedrock above flood level. The next year, the Geological Survey of India reported the condition of the exposed bedrock. In 1927, Bhakra was reviewed by A.J. Wiley, consultant to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during planning for Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and Milner Dam on the Snake River in Idaho. Together with W.H. Nicholson, chief engineer of Punjab Irrigation, Wiley recommended a high dam at Bhakra.
Planning
In 1939, A.N. Khosla of Punjab Irrigation made a geologic and design report for the proposed dam. A chief engineer from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation suggested excavating potential sites for foundations, which was done before 1947 under F.A. Nickell, a consulting geologist for the bureau. Canals were constructed first. Dam construction began in 1952, when Harvey Slocum, a 79-year-old construction worker who had supervised the building of Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State, arrived with his 50-man crew.
Security
India's first president, Jawaharlal Nehru, inaugurated Bhakra Dam in October 1963. He visited the site 10 times in the 10 years of construction and called the dam "something which shakes you up...the new temple of resurgent India..." As such, the dam is a strategic military target for religious fundamentalists. In spring 2009, Indian security intercepted communications regarding destruction of the dam, which would flood 1,500 villages and impact food production in the Punjab.
Tags: chief engineer, Punjab Irrigation, Sutlej River, Bureau Reclamation, gravity that
