Uri Dam is a 480 MW hydroelectric power station on the

Jhelum River The Jhelum River (/dʒʰeːləm/) is a river in the northern Indian subcontinent. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir, and then ...

near Uri in Baramula district of the Jammu and Kashmir,

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 ...

. It is located very near to the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan. The station is largely built under a hill with a 10 km tunnel. It is of the

run-of-the-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

type without a large dam, since the

Indus Waters Treaty The Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, arranged and negotiated by the World Bank, to use the water available in the Indus River and its tributaries. It was signed in Karachi on 19 September 1960 b ...

gives Pakistan the exclusive right to regulate the Jhelum River. On 4 July 2014 a 240 MW Uri-II power project which is a new project located just downstream of Uri I, was inaugurated.

Construction

The project was awarded by the

National Hydroelectric Power Corporation 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 o ...

in October 1989 to a European consortium called ''Uri Civil'' led by Swedish

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

and including Swedish NCC and

ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...

and British Kvaerner Boving. It was partially funded by the Swedish and British governments. The workforce included about 200 foreigners and 4,000 Indians, many from the local area. This together with shelling across the border and unrest related to the burning of

Charari Sharief Charar-i-Sharief (variously spelled Chrar-e-Sharif, Charari Shareef, etc.) (, known as Tsrar-i-Sharif () in Kashmiri, is a town and a notified area committee in Budgam district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The t ...

and the siege of

Hazratbal Shrine The Hazratbal Shrine ( ks, ), popularly called Dargah Sharif ("the Holy Shrine"), is a Muslim shrine located in Hazratbal locality of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It contains a relic, ''Moi-e-Muqqadas'', which is widely believed to ...

led to an 18-month delay. The project cost about

Rs. Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

33 billion (about 450 million EUR or US$660 million) and was completed in 1997.

Operation

The station is operated by the

NHPC 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 ...

. Plans to expand it with a 250 MW Uri-II plant were announced in 1998. The government of Pakistan has objected to this, saying it violates the

. On 4 July 2014 a 240 MW Uri-II power project which is a new project located just downstream of Uri I, was inaugurated.

References

External links

Uri Hydroelectric Project
on

website. {{coord, 34.1444, 74.18545, display=title Hydroelectric power stations in Jammu and Kashmir Dams in Jammu and Kashmir Dams on the Jhelum River 1997 establishments in Jammu and Kashmir Dams completed in 1997 Uri, Jammu and Kashmir