Ranjit Sagar Dam

Ranjit Sagar Dam, also called Thein Dam, stands on the Ravi where Punjab meets Jammu and Kashmir, about 30 km from Pathankot. Wikipedia describes it as an earth-fill dam about 160 m high with a 600 MW power station of four 150 MW units, and says up to 60 per cent of its reservoir lies in Jammu and Kashmir. It is upstream of Shahpur Kandi Dam and the Madhopur headworks (SANDRP). Global Energy Monitor lists Punjab State Power Corporation Limited as its owner, and Mongabay India says the Punjab government manages it. It serves irrigation and power.

Building it. Wikipedia dates feasibility studies from 1953 and construction from 1981; the generators were commissioned in 2000 and the project was completed in March 2001. Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab have long disputed its water, electricity, jobs and compensation, and J&K raised the matter at the Northern Zonal Council in May 2017.

Key moments

• 1981: construction begins. 2000: power generation begins. March 2001: the project is completed.
• 26 and 27 August 2025: after heavy rain upstream, large releases from the dam raised the Ravi at Madhopur. SANDRP gives 2.12 lakh cusecs for 26 August and cites ThePrint for 2.21 lakh on 27 August, and notes that media figures ran from over 4 lakh to 2 lakh cusecs, mostly without times. The Tribune says it is "believed" that 2.12 lakh cusecs were released.
• Night of 26 to 27 August: the gates at Madhopur headworks, downstream, did not open in time. SANDRP says staff opened only 7 of 28 gates and that at least three gates were damaged on the evening of 27 August. The Tribune reports that two gates gave way, that the Army rescued 22 personnel and that a nearby building collapsed. The Punjab government later suspended three officers posted at the headworks. Mongabay India says the damage flooded large areas of Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts.
• September 2025: Himanshu Thakkar of SANDRP told Mongabay India that from 27 August the dam released more water than it received, adding to the flooding. Mongabay called it Punjab's worst flood since 1988.

Who is responsible. The state's water resources minister, Barinder Kumar Goyal, blamed a private firm whose report said the headworks could pass up to 6.25 lakh cusecs, and said the gates failed under less than 2 lakh cusecs. SANDRP says the Central Water Commission does not monitor the dam or Madhopur in the monsoon and that the Punjab Irrigation Department has not made hourly discharge data public, so the releases cannot be checked against public records.

What it means today. The dam is part of the story of the 2025 Punjab floods. On 27 August 2025 the Ravi also entered Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, where the saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib was reported safe on the first floor (The Tribune). The sources opened give no final finding on who was responsible for the failure at Madhopur.