DAM FOR INDIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 66, 13 August 1947, Page 7

DAM FOR INDIA

TO BUILD HIGHEST IN WORLD COST ESTIMATED AT ABOUT £67,500,000 A plan to build the highest dam in the world, 750 feet in height, on the River Kosi in Nepal is described in the current issue of “Indian Information,” an official publication of the Government of India. The Kosi, with its tributaries the Arun and the Tamur, is “a wild and wayward river.” Its drainage area in the Himalayas includes Everest and Kangchendzonga and the largest glaciers in Nepal.

After flowing for six miles through a narrow gauge near Chhatra, it finds its way across the plains of Bihar to the Ganges by channels which shift from time to time, causing large-scale destruction of life and property. Nearly 3000 square miles of Bihar and 500 square miles of Nepal have been laid waste by these shifting channels. Sometimes the river rises more than thirty feet in a day.

The dam will be built across the Chhatra gorge and will be designed not only to control the flood w r aters and provide fresh irrigation for more than 3,000,000 acres of land, but also to provide power for a generating station with a* capacity of 1,300,000 kilowatts. Its cost is estimated at up to 90 crores of rupees—about £67,500,000.