murali's posts with tag: dams
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|  | Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is the world’s tallest masonry dam that irrigates over 10 lakh acres of land. This dam is situated between the Nalgonda and Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh. The construction was started in 1955 and was completed by 1966.
While lying foundation stone to Nagarujuna Sagar Dam, Javaharlal Nehru told that the dams and industries we are building are modern temples of India which will help to grow our country.
As the construction rose to a certain height, the massive structure resembled an anthill with thousands of labourers carrying construction material on the complex maze of scaffoldings. A breathtaking view even to Jawaharlal Nehru and Kenneth Galbraith, then U.S. Ambassador to India, who during a visit to the site around that time, were touched by the sight and their eyes became moist. In all, 162 persons died during construction, including eight engineers. Makeshift towns cropped up all around the dam. Workers in these colonies never seemed to sleep for 15 years as the work continued day and night
Dr K.L. Rao, His designs were not only simple but also humane. I once asked him why he took such a big risk and decide to do what had never been attempted before anywhere in the world, building a dam across a river like the Krishna in masonry instead of concrete. Masonry was used to build structures on rivers, but never before on such a scale. He replied that besides the abundant availability of stone, there was abject poverty and therefore an urgent need to provide employment to unskilled workers. Nagarjuna Sagar was built by hand. At one point of time there were a hundred thousand people moving up and down the scaffolding carrying stone. An unforgetable spectacle of human endeavour, perhaps paralleled only by the Pyramids and the Great Wall. His blue print for the gigantic task of linking the rivers of India, the Brahmaputra - Ganga right up to the Cauvery, was motivated by concerns like national integration and employment generation as much as they were by needs for irrigation, power, navigation etc.
There were many brains behind the construction. K. Sujatha Rao, senior IAS officer in the A.P. Government and daughter of K.L. Rao, engineer-statesman, recalls how not a single day passed without her father coming home late night from the workspot. Mir Jaffer Ali, its chief engineer for eight crucial years of construction, was invariably coated with a fine layer of dust. The statues of these two visionaries have been installed now at the site
Kudos to the milloons of workers
Note:-According to the Central Water Commission, we have three thousand six hundred dams that qualify as Big Dams, three thousand three hundred of them built after Independence. One thousand more are under construction. Yet one-fifth of our population - 200 million people - does not have safe drinking water and two-thirds - 600 million - lack basic sanitation.
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