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| Tehri Dam taken somewhere in August from one of the viewpoints along Tehri Dam - Bagirathipuram road. |
The road that goes in the middle of two green parallel lines is a national highway New Tehri and Bagirathipuram to the neighboring towns like Rishikesh via Chamba, Koteshwar through the left road, and Srinagar Garhwal through the upper road.
We once traveled this road from Rishikesh via Narendra Nagar - Chamba road to Gauchar in Chamoli District.
As you can see the water is aqua-marine during the months of August through June, but the level of water falls down in winter.
Tehri Dam Hydro Power Plant is located below Bagirathipuram (B. Puram) where the main office of THDC is located and where its employees and staffs including CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel and their families are housed. There is a reasonable market at Bagirathipuram. Fruits and Vegetable stores, grocery shops, pharmacy, sweets shops, clothing, and textiles, etc.
Government offices include India Post, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.
It is known that when the dam was built an entire town including the villages in its lower vicinity was submerged and residents were relocated and the new town, New Tehri was born. New Tehri is around 15 kilometers from Bagirathipuram.
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| The backside of Tehri Dam. The excess water flows down and gets dam in Koteshwar which is around 25 kilometers from here. |
This is the view of the dam if you are coming from Koteshwar, particularly if you use the left road from the zero point bridge which leads to the township of Bagirathipuram (the view on the top left). The right road from zero point bypasses B. Puram if you are heading towards Srinagar Garhwal but will still have a good view of the dam.
Like many dam areas, the surrounding hills are damaged and the water is lifeless.
One serious thing that can be done here is a massive reforestation in and around the areas where fruit-bearing trees are planted along with other non-fruit bearing trees for diversity.
The place is cold, but not that cold, in winter and quite hot and humid in summer. Since the roads are not yet fully completed, some landslides occur during rainy days which sometimes cause roadblocks.
There is a road from Bagirathipuram to Koteshwar. Many of the employees and staffs in Koteshwar come from B. Puram and commute every day to work on THDC buses. There are private jeeps as well for public transport but not frequent.
For more information about the dam, visit THDC website.
Koteshwar Dam soon...keep visiting for updates and new posts!
