Koteshwar Dam


The Koteshwar Dam is a gravity dam on the Bhagirathi River, located downstream of the Tehri Dam in Tehri District, Uttarakhand, India. The dam is part of the Tehri Hydropower Complex and serves to regulate the Tehri Dam's tailrace for irrigation and create the lower reservoir of the Tehri Pumped Storage Power Station. In addition, the dam has a 400 MW run-of-the-river power station. The project was approved in 2000 and its first generator was commissioned on 27 March 2011, the second on 30 March 2011. The construction site had been inundated in September 2010 by floods. The diversion tunnel was later blocked heaving/collapse of the hill in December 2010. The spillway was commissioned in Jan,2011. The last two generators were made operational in March 2012.

Design

The dam is tall and long. It has a structural volume of and its crest lies at an elevation of above sea level. The dam's spillway consists of four wide and tall radial gates. When the reservoir is at flood level, the spillway has a discharge capacity of. Receiving water from Tehri Dam and collecting it from an overall catchment area, the dam creates a reservoir with a capacity, of which is active. The reservoir's surface area is and at full pool, it lies at an elevation of. The dam's power station is a run-of-the-river type and uses the active storage in the reservoir which can draw the lake down from full pool. The power house is located on the right bank of the river below the dam and contains 4 x 100 MW Francis turbine-generators. The height of the dam allows for a maximum of hydraulic head.