The Tehri Development Project started the Tehri Dam as a major hydroelectric project centred near Tehri Town in the state of Uttarakhand. The Tehri Dam is located on the Bhagirathi River, which is the principal tributary of the sacred River Ganges. The Tehri Dam has a height of around 855 feet (261 m) and is acclaimed as the 5th tallest dam in the world. The Tehri dam is located in the Central Himalayan Seismic Gap, which is a major geologic fault zone. This region is highly prone to earthquake. However, the dam founders claim that the complex is designed in a pattern that can withstand an earthquake of 7.2 magnitudes.
The Tehri Dam was build with the purpose to have the power generation capacity of 2400 MW, thus catering to the irrigation requirements to an area of 270,000 hectares. A supply of 270 million gallons of drinking water per day to the industrialized areas of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is another major responsibility of the dam. Koteshwar is another smaller dam, constructed 14 km downstream that produces around 400 MW of electricity, and is also a part of the TDP hydroelectric plan. More than 1 billion US dollars has been spent on the construction of the Tehri Dam.
The Tehri Dam has been the issue of active protestation by ecological organizations and local people of the province. More than 100,000 people from the area were relocated to places with their resettlement rights. Finally, the project was completed quite late.
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