Many dams and barrages built on the river Ganges are an important part of Indian life and economy. The most prominent of these are the Farakka Barrage (2240 meters long, inaugurated on 21 April 1975) on the Indo – Bangladesh border. This was made to provide irrigation, fishery, water in Hooghly (in summer season) and to protect the port of Kolkata port from silt.
Similarly, ‘Tihri Dam’ on Bhagirathi river has been built for supply water to multipurpose projects. Its height is 261 meters. This provides generation of hydroelectricity 2040 MW power and irrigation to 270000 hectare area and a daily supply of 102.20 crore litres of drinking water to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The third largest dam is the ‘Bhimgoda Dam’ located in Haridwar, which was built by the British in 1940.
Water of this dam is used for irrigation, fisheries, provision of drinking water. Apart from these, many barrages have been built near the Nepal border on the Sharda, Kosi and Gandak rivers. These are used for power generation, irrigation and drinking water purposes. These dams have many advantages but there is a huge problem of silt deposition in this area, due to which ‘Farakka Barrage’ is the most affected.
