Major Dams in India

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to provide clean electricity for millions of consumers. It can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations.

Hoover Dam, a concrete arch-gravity dam in Black Canyon of the Colorado River. Lake Mead in the background is impounded by the dam. (Below the picture of Hoover dam.)

1) Tandula Dam is located in Chhattisgarh in India. It is located 5 km from Balod in Durg district. The dam project was completed in 1921 in the confluence of Tandula and Sukha Nala rivers. The dam stores water from catchment area of 827.2 km2. The gross storage capacity of the reservoir is 312.25 million cubic meter and the highest flood level is 333.415 m. 2) Kadra Dam is situated in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka state in India. The dam is constructed across river Kalinadi. The dam was primarily built as hydroelectric project for supply of water to turbines of electric power generating station. 3) Rihand Dam is located at Pipri in Sonbhadra District in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is on the border of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It is on the Rihand River which is the tributary of the Son River.
4) Chimmony Dam is situated in Thrissur District of Kerala state of India. The dam was constructed across the Chimmony river at 75 m above the sea level. Consequent to the construction of the dam, an artificial lake has been formed with an area of 10 sq.km. and 20 m depth.
5) Mandira dam is located in Orissa, India. It is built across Sankh River. It is located 16 km upstream from Madira. The water from the dame is used for Rourkela