The Department of Civil Engineering has organized an Industrial Visit to Maithon Dam, constructed over the Barakar River, nearby the border of West Burdwan (West Bengal) and Jharkhand, on 24th February, 2020.
Mr. Shukla, Executive Engineer, DVC guided the student team and given a detailed description about the method of construction, the various part of the dam, their functions and the maintenance processes.
It is an Earthen dam with 12 lock gates with 4,789 meter long across the Barakar River, retain the river about 150 ft. height at its upstream face. The dam was constructed in the period from 1951 to 1957, to serve various important purposes like Flood control, Hydropower generation, Supply irrigation water to various places over Bengal and Jharkhand, help to produce Thermal power at Durgapur, Bokaro. The dam is able to generate 60 MW Hydroelectricity by rotating three huge Francis Turbine with minimum discharge of 20 cumec (m3/second) water at Maithon Hydel Station on downstream side.
After visiting the Dam and the Hydel Station, the team proceed to the DVC head office at Jharkhand (17 km from the dam), where Mr. Satyabrata Banerjee, Chief Engineer (Civil), DVC, presented a PPT on the history of the construction, activity of DVC to build the Nation and its contribution in flood control in Damodar valley. Mr. Banerjee explained that, how Maithon dam associated with the dams of Tilaiya, Panchet, Konar and Durgapur effectively controlled the flood at Damodar valley and reduce its intensity about 50 %. Due this project the Damodar river, which was known as ‘The Sorrow of Bengal’ now turns as the medium of the Prosperity of Bengal. The industrial visit was accompanied by the faculty team Prof. S.N. Roy, Mr. Tamal Kanti Das, and Ms. Mayurakshi Baneerjee.