The Bhakra-Nangal Project

SOCIAL

an original nor a new proposal. All through time, the (Reproduced from a Press Release issued by Press bulk of the monsoon of the river water is be- Information Bureau Government of India Dated supplies 16. 6. 54) ing drained away fruitlessly to the Arabian Sea, which stored and channelled into fields can THE BHAKRA-NANGAL PROJECT hungry yield .food for millions without burt, now or at any The was the Punjab of pre-partition days reputed time, to any state depending on the waters from the wheat granary o,f India and made up much of the Himalayas. The implementation of the scheme in un- deficit of other states in this cereal. But most of the divided Punjab had primarily been held up for finan- wheat fields however lay in the canal-watered West cial and political conditions until about 1945 or a little which often came to the rescue of the arid parts in the before the partition. east that were subject to frequent drought and famine. With the partition of 1947 the age-long cry for water PROJECT'S MAIN FEATURES for East and Raiasthan became in- Punjab, Pepsu Bhakra Dam and Power Houses : tensely real and assumed the importance of a national There is a sort of poetic justice in the Bhakra Project problem, for not the surplus from undivided only Scheme evolved by engineers after years of painsta- Punjab was out but the requirements of Indian wiped king labour and calculation. As though in keeping with Punjab aggravated food deficit. national its Himalayan backdrop the man-made barrier, re- A permanent remedy was, therefore, urgently sought quired to collect sufficient volume of water, for deve- for the problem of the Punjab and was found in the lopment of the requisite irrigated area and the requisite scheme of harnessing the waters of the Sutlej?the life- quantity of electrical energy, has to be an unprece- line of the border state in the West. This was neither dently high concrete dam. This structure, spanning 24 THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE [Jan., 1955 the narrow picturesque gorge at the foot of the moun- surrounding can be made use of to create artificial tain, has to rise 680 feet, almost sheer from the rockly falls along the canal by means of which hydro power bed of the Sutlej and run across for 1.700 feet at its can be generated. top. In other words, nearly three Qutab Miners will There will be two power houses at the twelvth and have to be climbed to reach the ton of the Bhakra Dam. eighteenth miles of the canals with an installed ca- At the bed level it will have an effective width of 625 pacity of 48.000 kw. in each. Provision has been feet. To allow the unwanted flood waters to flow made for the installation of an additional unit of over the dam, a central spillway 260 feet long con- 24,000 kw.. in each of the power houses. trolled by four steel gates will be installed. To release water for purposes of irrigation from the Bhakra The Irrigation System : Reservoir, 10 outlets will be provided in each of two The Bhakra Canal system will make a net work tiers at calculated Between these outlets heights. of major and minor channels running- to a total length cubic feet per second can be let out for irriga- 106,000 of 2,890 miles. The main feeder canal of this system fields down stream and in combination with the ting ?the Bhakra Main Line will take off from the tail all together 290,000 cubit feet of water can spillway, of the Nangal Hydel Canal, and will be 108 miles lone be let out of the reservoir at a given instant. lined with impervious tile masonary containing a sand-witched of mortar throughout its The Bhakra Reservoir will be able to store 7.4 mil- layer length. From this will branch out the main arteries of the lion acre feet of water-enough to cover the cultivable system, reaching out like veins to lead 12.500 cubic area year of the Indian State of Punjab under one feet per second of much needed water to the parched foot of water every year. But all this water, how- lands on both sides. ever, will not be available for direct utilisation, because 1.7 million acre feet at the bottom of the reser- Potentialities of the Scheme : voir will have to be allowed for a steadv accumulation One criterion of the success of the Bhakra of the silt brought down by the river from its Hima- Nangal like that of any other enterprise, is the return layan catchment. Thus the irrigation svstem has been Project, it on the investment. The planned for onl_y 5.7 million acre feet. brings capital expenditure involved is considerable. Part of the water released for irrigation from the As regards returns?direct and indirect?it is esti- Bhakra Reservoir is intended to develop power at the mated that on full of foot of the dam. the attainment of development irrigation, 3 million acres of land will be nnder crops Dam : Nangal every year. The total installed capacity is expected to be of the order of 1,86,000 kw. The Nangal Dam, 8 miles downstream from the Bhakra Dam site, which was the first to be undertaken All the land will not be devoted to food crops. Part for construction and which was completed in 1951, not of it will be devoted to raising long staple cotton, a only serves to divert the regulated flow from the Bha- commodity urgently required to keep the Indian tex- kra Reservoir into the Nangal Hydel Canal but also tile mills working. acts as a balancing reservoir for the power houses that will be located on the Nangal Hydel Canal. EMPLOYMENT Nangal Canal and Pozver Houses : An extremely important aspect of the indirect returns of the is that of employment. Ever since The Nangal Hydel Canal is an irrigation-cum-Power Project India achieved and the State was divi- channel which carries water to the Bhakra Irrigation independence ded at the time of partition between India and Pakis- System and generates hydio-eleqtric power. In size tan, the most pressing need has been that of rehabili- it is one of the biggest ever undertaken in the Punjab tating the countless refugees who sought shelter in State, perhaps without precedent in the world. De- India. Most of these virile cultivators aind artisans signed to carry 14,500 cubic feet of water per second are now either idle or under employed. To them the for the 1st 9,700 feet of its length, and 12,500 cubic Bhakra Nangal holds forth the prospect of feet per second thereafter, this lined canal will have Project security long forgotten and homes like those left a depth of 20.6 feet and will be about 140 feet wide behind in West Punjab. The project now employs at the top?a man made river. It takes off on the a construction force of 125000 workers. left bank of the Sutlej above the Nangal Dam and runs to the river the sub- parallel through rugged Organisational Set-up : mountainous regions of the Shiwalik foot Hills, tra- The execution of this project is carried out under versing numerous ravines and hill torrents in its path. the overall charge of a Control Board presided over In all, there will be 58 such crossings, many of which by Sri C. P. N. Singh, Governor of Punjab in his require the canal to be carried at a considerable height personal capacity and in which the Central Govern- above ground level. ment and the Government of Punjab, Pepsu, Rajas- The slope of the canal from the Nangal Dam has than, Bilaspur and Himachal Pradesh are represented. bee? so designed that the steeper natural slope of the Solely for the execution of the Bhakra Dam. an or- ' -Jan., 1955] SOCIAL WELFARE

ganisation has been evolved, manned for a greater Canal passes could not be adequately served without part by Indian personnel, assisted and advised by a good road. Heavy construction equipment was re- foreign experts familiar with and experienced in the quired to be continually moved from place to place problems of such construction. The organisation, along the Canal, and the railway line could not eater headed by a General Manager, consists of three parts, for such requirements. Work was. therefore, com- namely the design group?the Designs Directorate menced simultaneously on the construction of a who undertake to provide the numerous drawings and metalled road capable of withstanding the load 'of details of the dam, the construction group?the cons- heavy drag lines, shovels, and tractors. The road truction and Plant-Design Directorate who will exe- now runs almost parallel to the railway line from cute the construction of the Dam and plan, obtain, Rupar to Nangal, and has been extended bevond to and install the construction plant required, and the the Bhakra Dam site. Winding through the picture- inspection group?The Directorate of Inspection and sque foot hills, this road lies alone the left bank of Control who will be responsible to ensure that the the Sutlej River, providing access to the top of the Dam and the appurtenant structures are constructed Bhakra gorge. A road-cum-rail bridge has now been according to the specifications and designs and the constructed near the dam site to extend the facilities requirements of safety. A well equipped concrete to the right bank. laboratory with modern apparatus has also been estab- Both the and line are for lished at Nangal to assist this Directorate. road railway primarily construction operations. However, their utility will An Engineering Research Laboratory is associated not end with the construction. They constitute an with the project wherein the designs of important essential part of the overall development programme structures are being systematically confirmed through of the area. model experiments. Housing :

PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS The problem of housing and other essential ameni- ties required for building up of a construction camp Communications : where the personnel could be accommodated for a An undertaking of the size of the Bhakra-Nangal period of about 10 years to see the job through to Projects is without precedent in the Punjab State- completion. This camp has developed into a scenic rather without precedent in India. It has brought and modern township at Nangal where the picturesque with it problems also without parallel-problems of hills form a striking background to the colony located design, problems of construction, problems of organi- on the bank of the Sutlej. At present about 300 sation. It is a characteristic of all major river valley engineers and experts, with twice the number of schemes, that the concentration of construction activity foremen, technicians., and operators, are housed in is at remote and inaccessible locations. The Bhakra- this township, which has been made as self-sufficient Nangal Project was no exception to this rule, and the as possible in providing the daily necessities of life, investigations, surveys, and initial construction were including educational and medical facilities. severely handicapped by the lack of an adequate all- weather road and the absence of a railway connection. River Diversion The nearest rail and road head was at Rupar, 40 miles For the construction of the dam. it is necessary to from the Nangal Dam site. Thus, one of the first divert the river water at the dam site, which is a tasks that faced the engineers was the establishment of narrow gorge and to achieve this two giant diversion communications bv road and rail with Rupar and the tunnels each of 50 feet diameter and half a mile long rest of the State. have been constructed on either side of the Bhakra The Indian Railways undertook the responsibility gorge in a bow shaped alignment. These are capable of providing a railway connection between Nangal of taking the entire flood discharge during the cons- Dam and Rupar. This was opened to passenger truction stage for a period of five years. These traffic and freight in 1948, and with it was ushered in tunnels were exceedingly difficult to construct because a new era of prosperity for the region it serves. The of the varying nature of the rock strata which had a State Government extended the railway' line beyond number of clay-stone bands. These tunnels have been Nangal Dam for a distance of 8 miles to the Bhakra rompleted at a cost of approximately 2i crores of Dam site, thus providing a very important link on rupees, employing the latest technique in tunnel ex- and concrete which depends the regular flow of materials and sup- cavation concreting. Most tof the had plies for the major construction operations of the to be pumped into position by means* of huge pump- project. crete machines which were installed outside the por- tals of the tunnels. The right tunnel is functioning The connection, while essential, was not Railway at present. The left tunnel will be brought" into considered a sufficient means of communication in an operation after the coffer dams are constructed. area where formerly only a fair-weather road existed. * The rugged country through which the Nangal Hydel Corrected from 'names' in the original, 26 THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE [Jan., 1955

SCHEDULE AND PROGRESS

The schedules of construction have been so arran- ged as to bring some of the benefits, as each stage of construction is completed.

The original schedule aimed at the completion of the irrigation system in 1955. However, the work has progressed ahead of schedule. and it will now be possible to supply irrigation water for the summer crop this year, a feat in planning, organisation, and speed of construction. The construction of the Nangal Dam was commenced in 1946, even before the communications to the site of the work were establish. The structure was completed in 1951, and the steel gates required for the regulation of supplies were installed in March 1954. These were manufactured at the Government

Central Workshops, Amritsar.

The Nangal Hydel Canal presented a major construction challenge, many problems encountered being without precedent. This vital feature of the Proiect has been completed and is now being proved with trial runs.

The two power houses located on the Nangal Canal are also under construction. Commenced in Novem- ber 1953, Power house I, located at mile 12 near the village of Ganguwal, will shortly by commissioned into service.

The excavation for the second power house is now complete, and the foundations are being constructed. It is estimated that Power house II will be in operation in November 1955.

The huge blocks of power necessitate 220 kilowatts and 132 kv transmission lines to connect the Nangal Power Plants to the existing Mandi Grid and to extend it to the outermost boundaries of the Punjab. P.E.P.S.U. and Delhi areas. This is a work of un- precedented magnitude and is being vigorously executed by the Electricity Branch. Punjab. The transmission towers are visible along the Grand Trunk Road, from Nangal to Delhi. The intricate work is being executed through Government forces, unlike the Mandi Project which was done bv foreign firms on contracts. The equipment for Nangal Power Plants is also being erected under the charge of the Electri- city Branch, Punjab.

The schedule of operations at Bhakra Dam con- templates completion of the works in 1959. But, some storage in the Bhakra Reservoir will commence before then. This storage will progressively increase with the height of the dam.

Thus the all round success of hte Bhakra Nangal Project, as gigantic in its stature as it is plentiful iji its benefits, will be the finest tributes that ingenuitv of man can pay to the mightiest mountain in the world, at whose feet, in a characteristic and traditional man- ner, the humble offer of endeavour will be laid.