Koldam Dam Hydropower Station is located on the Chandigarh-Manali highway NH-21 near Barmana in Himachal Pradesh, India. And it is 18 km away from Bilaspur. The purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation. It is an embankment dam on the Sutlej River above the Dehar Power House. Koldam Hydropower Station support of an 800 MW power station. The dam has been constructed by NTPC Limited.
Koldam Project
Here are some important things about the Koldam project the Official name of is Koldam Hydro Power Station. Koldam Dam is in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, India. Construction began in 2004 and the Opening date is 2015. Koldam Dam Owner is NTPC Limited and the Type of dam Embankment is rock-fill with clay core. The dam is built across the Sutlej River and has a height of the dam is 548 feet and a thalweg of 502 feet. The length of the dam is 1,555 ft and the crest is 46 ft and the base is 768.97 m. The dam volume is 12,000,000 m3 and Reservoir’s total capacity is 466,971-acre⋅ft. The Dam Installed capacity of 800 MW and the Annual generation is 3055 million units.
Kol Dam Hydropower Project
Here is information about Kol Dam Hydropower Project. In October 1984, HPSEB made a project to build this dam. The capacity of the project was revised to 800 MW but the work was abandoned midway as they did not have the funds to build the dam. After this, NTPC took over the work of the Koldam Dam Hydro Project in 2000. NTPC prepared the report for Koldam which was revised with an installed capacity of 4X200 MW with a 167 m high rock fill dam and surface powerhouse located downstream of the dam.
The idea to build Koldam started in the mid-sixties. The investigation into the construction of the dam went on for some time. Based on the investigations carried out till 1975, a project report was prepared that envisaged the construction of a rockfill dam with an installed capacity of 600 MW. Atal Bihari Vajpayee first laid the foundation stone of the dam on 5 June 2000. Work on the dam began on 14 January 2004. The construction of the dam was started but the project got delayed due to geological issues and the declaration of part of the reservoir.
The first attempt to close the reservoir failed in December 2013 due to problems sealing the diversion tunnels. As of 18 March 2014, a fourth attempt was made to seal the tunnels and fill the lake, and as of April 2014, another has failed. Due to leakage in the diversion tunnel, work was again stopped for some time. And the work resumed on 3 November 2014 and was successful on 3 January 2015. And by 2015 the dam was completely ready. The first head of the dam was KB Dubey. And from 2020 BUH is NS Thakur.
