Bhakra Dam is a concrete dam of gravity across the Sutlej River and is near the border between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The dam, located in a gorge near the village of Bhakra upstream (now submerged) in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, which is about 13 km upstream from Nangal townshi, is the second highest in Asia to 225, 55 m (740 ft) high next to the 261m Tehri Dam also in India. The length of the dam (measured from the road above it) is 518.25 m; It is 9.1 m wide. Its reservoir, known as the "Gobind Sagar", stores up to 9.34 billion cubic meters of water, enough to drain the entire Chandigarh, parts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi. The 90 km long reservoir created by the Bhakra Dam extends over an area of 168.35 km2. As for water storage, it retains the second largest reservoir in India, the first being the Indira Sagar dam in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 12.22 trillion cubic meters.
Described as "New Temple of Resurgent India" by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, the dam attracts tourists from all over India. The Nangal Dam is another dam downstream of the Bhakra Dam. Sometimes both dams are called Bhakra-Nangal prey, although they are two separate prey.
Bhakra-Nangal's multipurpose dams were among the first development plans in India's post-independence river valleys, although the project had been conceived long before India became a free nation. Preliminary works began in 1946. Construction of the dam began in 1948, Jawahar Lal Nehru poured the first concrete bucket at the Bhakra foundations on November 17, 1955 and the dam was completed at the end of 1963. Successive stages were completed by the early Seventies
Initially, construction of the dam was initiated by Sir Louis Dane, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. But the project was delayed and restarted shortly after Independence. In October 1963, at the ceremony to commemorate the dedication of the Bhakra-Nangal Project to the Nation, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said: "This dam has been built with the unceasing work of man for the benefit of mankind and therefore is worthy of worship.You can call it a temple or a Gurdwara or a mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence. "