Tehri dam is being constructed across the Bhagirathi (Ganga) below the confluence of its two main head tributaries, e.g., the Bhagirathi and the Bhilangana rivers in Tehri district of Uttaranchal.
The major objectives of the project are to impound floodwaters of the Bhagirathi and the Bhilangana rivers into a large reservoir behind the dam, generation of hydroelectricity and irrigation of agricultural land in the western Uttar Pradesh.
The project was cleared by the Planning Commission of India in 1972 and the work was started by the Irrigation Department of Uttar Pradesh on April 5, 1978. Tehri Hydro-Dam Corporation (THDC) was constituted in 1989. The project is being implemented with Soviet (Russian), technical and economic aid.
The Tehri dam (260.5 m) is the highest rock-fill dam in the country. The Tehri reservoir will impound 345 million cubic meters of water of the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana rivers. The reservoir will submerge 467 square kilometers of area belonging to 172 villages and will displace 1, 25,000 people. Tehri town will also be submerged under the dam.
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The project will provide irrigation to 2, 70,000 hectares of agricultural land in the western Uttar Pradesh and supply 300 cusecs of water to Delhi. The installed capacity of power generation is 2,400 mw.
About 1,000 mw of hydroelectricity would be generated in an underground powerhouse constructed near the dam, while another 1,000 mw will be produced by 4 units (each unit of 250 mw) from the water pumped back to the reservoir during off-peak hours. The water released from Tehri dam during the generation of power will be again impounded by a concrete dam at Koteshwar, 22 km down-stream from Tehri dam site.
This balancing reservoir of Koteshwar Hydel Station will generate another 4 mw of hydroelectricity.
The Tehri dam project estimated to cost Rs. 3,000 crores (1989 esteem and the life of the dam would be 100 economic Serious objections have been raised environmentalists and men of public over mainly on three counts viz., (i) seismity region and therefore safety problem of the environmental degradation and ecologieance, and (iii) displacement of loc al inhabit destruction of regional age-old culture, has given due credence to these objection.