India has approved plans to build the country’s biggest hydropower project in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, the Times of India reports.
The $3.9bn scheme will be built on the Dibang river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, in the country’s mountainous northeast.
The project was conceived in the early 1980s. In January 2004, approval was granted for the clearance of a 54 sq km site in Munli village in the Lower Dibang Valley. The government then approved an investment of $186m in planning and preparation in July 2019.
The barrier will be a 278m-high, 375m-long concrete gravity dam, which will be the highest of its kind in India. This will create a 43km-long reservoir with a gross storage capacity of 3.85 billion cubic metres.
The lead consultant for the scheme is Swedish–Finish design engineer AFRY. It carried out a detailed project report, geotechnical appraisal of the future dam’s foundations as well as the construction and project management planning.
Further reading:
- India takes on $2.4bn worth of Nepalese hydro schemes
- China’s “Two Sessions” meeting hears calls to speed up nuclear programme, Tibetan dam
- Pakistan finally gives green light to controversial Indus dam in Kashmir
- China’s plans to build massive hydropower scheme sparks “terrestrial aggression” claims from India
