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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: India’s Union Water Resource Ministry said that Salma dam likely to be commissioned in the middle of 2016.
Construction of the dam was started in January 2006 in western Herat province. Material was shipped to Iran from India and later to Afghanistan.
According to a news report published by the Business Standard, the dam is built at a cost of more than Rs1400 crore (Indian rupees) across the Harirud River at Chist-e-Sharif in Herat province. The multipurpose dam will generate 42 megawatt of electricity and irrigate 75,000 ha of land.
Sources in the Union Water Resource Ministry told Business Standard that around 90 percent of the work is over. The remaining work includes electromechanical and transmission lines. The Salma dam project is likely to be commissioned in the middle of next year.
The project funded by the Indian government as a goodwill gesture, is executed by the WAPCOS Limited, a Public Sector Enterprise functioning under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Water Resources.
The dam is the second largest hydropower project built by India in overseas. Salma dam’s annual energy generation would be 86.6 giga watt hour.
The reservoir water spreads about 20 kilometer in length and 3.7 kilometer in width. The dam, which is 107 meter high, 550 meter long and 500 meter wide, has the gross water capacity of 633 Million Cubic Meters.
More than a week ago, the reservoir started filling up and the diversion of water was closed. The dam would be handed over to the government by India once the work is over.
