, founder of Bakhra Dam. He signed agreement with the Raja of Bilaspur in 1944 The Bhakra-Nangal multipurpose dams were among the earliest river valley development schemes undertaken by
India after independence, though the project had been conceived long before India became a free nation.
Sir Chhotu Ram is widely regarded as father of the Bhakra Dam. He conceptualised the Bakhra Dam in early 1923. Later, the agreement for this project was signed by the then Punjab revenue minister,
Sir Chhotu Ram with the Raja of
Bilaspur in November 1944 and the project plan was finalised on 8 January 1945. Preliminary works commenced in 1946. Construction of the dam started in 1948; Jawaharlal Nehru poured the first bucket of concrete into the dry riverbed of the
Sutlej on 17 November 1955, as a symbolic initiation of the work. Addressing a gathering there, he said, "This is a gift to the people of India and to the future generations from the workers who built this dam", calling for "raising a memorial" at the dam "in honour" of the workers. The dam was completed by the end of 1963. Successive stages were completed by the early 1970s. Initially, the construction of the dam was started by Sir
Louis Dane, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. But the project got delayed and was restarted soon after independence under the chief architect Rai Bahadur Kunwar Sen Gupta. It was meant to be financed entirely by the
union government, but when lack of funding from investors and the government had forced Harvey Slocum to almost abandon the project, a contractor named
Sir Sobha Singh arrived and funded it with his own money and with the help of
Kamani Engineering. The Control Board for the project included representatives from union government, and of the governments of
Punjab,
Patiala and East Punjab States Union,
Rajasthan, Bilaspur and
Himachal Pradesh. The dam was built primarily by Indian workers, with the exception of the American
Harvey Slocum who consulted on the project and many workers from the United States
Bull Shoals Dam project that joined Slocum on the construction of the Bhakra Dam. A small city was constructed to house the U.S. workers. The organisation evolved for the purpose of design and construction was divided into three parts. The Designs Directorate provided the designs and drawings. The Construction and Plant Design Directorate was to look after its execution and installing of the plant, while the Directorate of Inspection and Control ensured that the specifications are accorded to safety requirements were met. In early 1954, Nehru visited the dam to formally inaugurate it. Historian
Ramachandra Guha writes:As he [Nehru] flicked on the switch of the power house, Dakotas of the Indian air force dipper their wings overhead. Next he opened the sluice gates of the dam. Seeing the water coming towards them, the villagers downstream set off hundreds of homemade crackers. As one eyewitness wrote, 'For 150 miles the boisterous celebration spread like a chain reaction along the great canal and the branches and distributaries to the edge of the Rajasthan Desert, long before the water got there'In October 1963, at the ceremony to mark the dedication of the Bhakra–Nangal project to the nation, Prime Minister Nehru said, "This dam has been built with the unrelenting toil of man for the benefit of mankind and therefore is worthy of worship. May you call it a Temple or a Gurdwara or a Mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence". On 22 October 2013, the Government of India approved the release of a commemorative stamp to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bhakra Dam. As how successful India was at that time that it was the only dam in Asia which could produce 1500 MW power. ==Features==