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West Bengal Maithon Dam
This dam was planned to control the annual flood seen in Bihar (Then the place of this dam was Bihar). Damodar River with its all tributary river flows in the upped bed of the valley and thus a little overflow in the river causes extremely sympathetic conditions of flood. To prevent the area surround, an artificial lake was constructed and area of this lake covers an area of 65 SQKM. To look after the proper management of the dam, the responsibility of the same was handed over to DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation. The jurisdiction of DVC is spread over 24,235 SQKM. In other words it can be said the entire Damodar basin is the functional area of DVC. Upper portion of the Damodar Valley has two main districts Dhanbad and Bokaro whereas lower portion consist more than four districts and falls in West Bengal area. Burdwan, Bankua, Howrah, Purulia and Hooghly are the major parts of this portion. The main intention behind setting up of DVC is to convert the nature of Damodar River as “River of Joy” in place of “River of Pity”.
History
In the period of Second World War, in the Damodar Valley area a flood caused a lot of disturbance. This flood not only spoiled all the farming but also made a cut off of the Calcutta district from other portions of the nation. This separation last for more than 2 months. Seeing this condition government has invited a civil engineer from USA Mr. W.L. Voord, who also designed the Tennessee Valley Dam. Mr. Voord has planned all the dams and designed. The first ever dam of the country came into existence and then four more dams constructed on Damodar River and its tributaries. Maithon Dam was in the series of the dams designed and constructed by Mr. Voord in 1945.
Technical Portion
This dam is located at 52 kilometers far from the Dhanbad district. In the entire DVC jurisdiction, this dam is the biggest one. The theme of designing of this dam has been taken from a Dam in USA. The dam has been constructed to put a solid check on the flood and also for the production of electricity to suffice the need of surrounding population. The capacity of the plant is 60,000 KW hydroelectricity. This power plant is unique in entire South Asia. The area of the lake constructed is more than 65 SQKM. Maithon Hydel station is also situated on the river Barakar nearing Dhanbad and Burdwan districts. The specialty of this plant is the locality. This is completely underground plant and only the Hydel station of its kind in the country. Three production units are located there and each has a capacity to produce 20 MV power. This plant is located approximately 330 mtrs below than normal water level. The flood threats have also been made enable at this dam for general information of public. The bed of dam has huge deposits of mud and sand.
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