The Dibang Dam is a planned concrete

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

, located in the

Lower Dibang Valley District The Lower Dibang Valley district (Pron:/dɪˈbæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It is the tenth least populous district in the country. History In June 1980, the Dibang Valley district ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. If constructed, it will be India's largest dam and the world's tallest

concrete gravity dam Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

, standing tall. The Dibang Dam is expected to provide up to 3,000

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

s of

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

power and will also assist with

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

in the Dibang Valley.

History

The foundation stone for the dam was laid on 31 January 2008 by Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

. Construction on the project, however, has yet to begin. In 2013, the

Ministry of Environment and Forests The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister ...

rejected the project's application but

NHPC Limited NHPC Limited (erstwhile National Hydroelectric Power Corporation ) is an Indian government hydropower board under the ownership of Ministry of Power, Government of India that was incorporated in the year 1975 with an authorised capital ...

resubmitted it in 2014. The dam has also been under intense local and international opposition to its tentative negative environmental impacts and forced relocations of Idu Mishmi tribal peoples. The

Modi government The premiership of Narendra Modi began on 26 May 2014 with his swearing-in as the prime minister of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the 14th Prime Minister of India, succeeding Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress. Modi' ...

gave a renewed go-ahead for the project in 2019. The main purpose of the project will be flood control and electricity generation. As of 2020, work was not progressing on either of the two major dam projects in the Assam region, the Dibang and the

Lower Subansiri Lower Subansiri district (Pron:/su:bənˈsɪɹi/) is one of the 25 administrative districts of the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. History The district was formed when Subansiri district was bifurcated into Upper and Lower Sub ...

.Aggarwal, M., 2019. Hydropower: Dibang Dam Approval And Dam Safety. ''Mongabay-India.'' Available at: https://india.mongabay.com/2019/07/hydropower-projects-come-back-in-focus-with-dibang-dam-push-and-the-dam-safety-bill (Accessed 18 September 2020).

References

External links

Dibang Project
at NHPC Hydroelectric power stations in Arunachal Pradesh Dams in Arunachal Pradesh Proposed hydroelectric power stations Dams in the Brahmaputra River Basin Proposed renewable energy power stations in India {{ArunachalPradesh-stub