Uttarakhand’s Tehri Dam is The Highest in India

Uttarakhand's Tehri Dam is The Highest in India

Tehri dam in Uttarakhand is the highest dam of India with a unique architecture, so unique that it took more than 35 years in its construction. It was in the limelight for the longest time because of the protests concerning it by locals and environmental activists. You can visit Tehri if you’re visiting Rishikesh or Haridwar. From Delhi, it’s a good 324km and takes anywhere between 10-12 hours by road.

Tehri Dam is also the second highest in Asia, at about 855 feet, and is located on the river bed of the sacred river Bhagirathi. The dam is known to generate 1000 MW of hydroelectricity and has an additional 1000 MW capacity of storing pumped hydroelectricity. The reason why it took so long for the dam to be built was that building a dam on the Himalayan foothills could  weaken the ecosystem, in turn leading to an imbalance in the whole environment of the entire belt. However, after much technical and financial assistance from the USSR, and weighing all the pros and cons, it came to be built by 2006. Once you’ve admired what a beauty it is, there’s much else to see in the surrounding areas as well.

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Tehri Lake came into existence with the construction of Tehri Dam. The lake offers a lot of adventurous water sports like boating, rafting, and kayaking. There are plans of adding more water and aerial sports to the list such as like water zorbing, canoeing, scuba diving, paragliding and hot-air ballooning.

Also visit the Koteshwar Dam, a gravity dam located 22km ahead of Tehri Dam. There’s a beautiful replica of Kedarnath Temple on one side of the tunnel, known as the Shakti Dawar. They say, the detailing was carved by a single mason in two months; after a single visit to Kedarnath. Koteshwar Mahadev Temple is another attraction in the form of the cave and is located on the bank of the river Alaknanda. Legend has it that Lord Shiva stayed and meditated here for some time when the devil Bhasmasur tried to kill him.