Pong Dam

Pong Dam is an earth-fill dam on the Beas in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, 133 metres high and 1,951 metres long at the crest. The lake behind it is called Maharana Pratap Sagar. Work began in 1961 and the dam was completed in 1974, as Unit II of the Beas Project, to store water for irrigation and hydropower.

It matters to Punjab because the river is Punjab's and the dam is not. Kangra was part of Punjab until the Punjab Reorganisation Act took effect on 1 November 1966 and moved Kangra, Shimla and Lahaul and Spiti districts to Himachal Pradesh. The Beas works are run by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), renamed on 15 May 1976 to take in the Beas dams. Its members are named by the Union government, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, with Delhi and Chandigarh. Ranjit Sagar on the Ravi, by contrast, is run by the Punjab State Power Corporation.

Key moments

• 1961 to 1974: the dam is built on the Beas.
• 1 November 1966: Kangra passes from Punjab to Himachal Pradesh.
• 28 August 2025: SANDRP records the lake at 1,393.36 feet, above the 1,390 feet maximum, with 94,845 cusecs flowing out.
• 4 September 2025: the lake reaches 1,394.51 feet, the year's highest, after five days above the danger mark. BBMB officials tell The Tribune they are releasing 99,769 cusecs and that the situation “remains dynamic”. Low-lying parts of Indora and Fatehpur in Kangra are flooded.
• 5 September 2025: in Down To Earth, Amandeep Sandhu argues that sections 78 and 79 of the 1966 Act treat Haryana as Punjab's successor in river waters, and that Bhakra and Pong hold water for Haryana and Rajasthan, leaving less room for monsoon inflow. This is an opinion piece.

What it means today. SANDRP called on 1 September 2025 for an independent inquiry into the Punjab floods, and for the BBMB technical committee's minutes, the rule curves and daily inflow and outflow figures to be published. It notes that the July and August inflow of 9.68 billion cubic metres is described as the highest since the project began, but says inflow should be given as a rate. For Punjab, Pong is where the question of flood timing meets the older question of who decides about its water.