Bhakra Dam

Bhakra Dam holds back the Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh. The reservoir behind it, Gobind Sagar, lies across Bilaspur and Una districts and is named in honour of Guru Gobind Singh, according to Himachal's tourism department. The Tribune calls Bhakra one of the tallest gravity dams in Asia, and Himachal's tourism department gives its height as about 225.5 metres. Gobind Sagar holds up to 9.34 billion cubic metres, and its maximum level is 1,680 feet, though it reached 1,685 feet in some extreme years. Bhakra and Pong together have a hydropower capacity of 1,775 MW and an irrigation potential of 6,76,000 hectares across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. They are run by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), not by Punjab alone.

Key moments

• 1948 to 1963: construction began in 1948 and the dam was inaugurated in 1963. Wikipedia says the BBMB was constituted in 1966, began running the project on 1 October 1967, and took its present name on 15 May 1976 to include the Beas dams.
• 23 April to 6 May 2025: the BBMB's Technical Committee decided to release 8,500 cusecs to Haryana. Punjab placed no indent, saying Haryana had overdrawn 3.13 million acre-feet against a share of 2.987. The BBMB released the water as a one-time exception on 1 May, and Punjab allegedly put police at the dam. On 2 May a meeting chaired by the Union Home Secretary agreed an extra 4,500 cusecs for Haryana, and on 6 May the High Court restrained Punjab and its police from interfering with the control rooms, while letting it provide security. It told Punjab to take any dissent to the Centre.
• 19 August 2025: the gates opened at 3 pm with the level at 1,665.06 feet, three feet above the guideline of 1,662, and 45,000 cusecs were released, the first opening of that monsoon. Mongabay India reports that Bhakra and Pong were past prudent storage by 20 August and that heavy releases began on 26 August, when Punjab was already flooding. SANDRP's Himanshu Thakkar called it clear mismanagement, and the BBMB chairman said releases followed rule curves and the river's carrying capacity.
• 2025 to 2029: a Rs 200 crore programme, with the World Bank paying up to 70 per cent, will assess the structural health of Bhakra and Pong.
• June 2026: the BBMB signed an agreement with the International Centre for Excellence on Dams at IIT Roorkee for a safety evaluation of Bhakra. On 9 June the reservoir stood at 1,578.07 feet, 31 per cent full, according to BBMB data cited by SANDRP.

What it means today: Gobind Sagar carries a Guru's name, and the water behind it is the subject of Punjab's long argument over who controls its rivers.