Punjab: Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will inaugurate the Shahpur Kandi Dam Project on Wednesday, marking the occasion of Gurupurab. Construction of the dam began in 1999, marking the end of nearly 26 years. The project’s completion will provide irrigation to 1.18 lakh hectares of land in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, and Pathankot districts. The inauguration comes just a week after the by-election for the Tarn Taran Assembly constituency. Construction of the power plant at the dam is expected to be completed by March 2026.
Machinery for the construction of the dam on the Ravi River arrived in 1999, but tenders were issued in May 2012, and construction began in March 2013. Even then, the project remained mired in controversy. The Jammu and Kashmir government halted work in August 2013 due to an inter-state dispute. Work resumed on November 1, 2018. The Shahpurkandi Dam is 50.5 meters high and has a storage capacity of 4.23 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft). Its total cost is estimated at ₹3,394 crore. A total of 3,172 acres of land was acquired for the project, of which 1,644 acres were acquired from farmers in Punjab and 1,528 acres from farmers in Jammu and Kashmir.
Punjab: Mann to inaugurate Shahpur Kandi Dam today
