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Harirud dam: Wapcos builds it, earns Afghan gratitude for India
By IndianMandarins- 13 Jun 2016
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When India took up the challenge of building a dam on the Harirud (Sanskrit meaning Lord Shiva) river in the Herat (Persian distortion of the Sanskrit word Harirud) 14 years ago, no one believed the dam could ever be completed. Even for Heratis, the completion of the dam had always seemed like an impossible dream. There were feasibility reports made for a dam going back to 1957, but it never took off the drawing board stage. Again there were attempts at building the dam, but it came to a cropper. One may say it now that perhaps Lord Shiva wanted India to do it - to slake the thirst of its ancient Abagan or Ashvaka people.
After the idea was mooted by the first NDA administration of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, a Cabinet approval for the project followed through in November 2004 with Rs 351.87 crore sanctioned. The contracts were awarded in 2005, with WAPCOS appointed as project manager, while a specially-constituted firm, Salma Dam Joint Ventures appointed as the contractor.
By January 2006, Wapcos engineers and workers reached the site - a wind-blown mountainous stretch of the Harirud river, littered with the rusting remnants of equipment previous contractors left behind 25 years ago. As every nut and bolt for the project have to be transported over a long distance - from Mumbai to Bandar Abbas, and then from there over a land distance of over 1,500 KMs - the project cost swelled and the deadlines continued to be extended. From December 2008, the second deadline was December 2010, followed by January 2015, July 2015 and finally, June 2016. The project finally cost over Rs 1,750 crores.
For public sector Wapcos engineers and workers who were building the dam, 2014 was the turning point when it seemed that the project will finally see the light of the day. The filling of the reservoir in August 2015 led to a change in nomenclature in the project to "Afghanistan-India friendship dam". Street parties sprung up in Herat city, with Indian flags being decorated across billboards. "I have personally led efforts from the front during the last six years and travelled to Dam Site to motivate my team," said Wapcos CMD R K Gupta in an interview with Indianmandarins. The rest, as they say, is history.
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Harirud dam: Wapcos builds it, earns Afghan gratitude for India
By IndianMandarins - 2016-06-13 11:07:46
When India took up the challenge of building a dam on the Harirud (Sanskrit meaning Lord Shiva) river in the Herat (Persian distortion of the Sanskrit word Harirud) 14 years ago, no one believed the dam could ever be completed. Even for Heratis, the completion of the dam had always seemed like an impossible dream. There were feasibility reports made for a dam going back to 1957, but it never took off the drawing board stage. Again there were attempts at building the dam, but it came to a cropper. One may say it now that perhaps Lord Shiva wanted India to do it - to slake the thirst of its ancient Abagan or Ashvaka people.
After the idea was mooted by the first NDA administration of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, a Cabinet approval for the project followed through in November 2004 with Rs 351.87 crore sanctioned. The contracts were awarded in 2005, with WAPCOS appointed as project manager, while a specially-constituted firm, Salma Dam Joint Ventures appointed as the contractor.
By January 2006, Wapcos engineers and workers reached the site - a wind-blown mountainous stretch of the Harirud river, littered with the rusting remnants of equipment previous contractors left behind 25 years ago. As every nut and bolt for the project have to be transported over a long distance - from Mumbai to Bandar Abbas, and then from there over a land distance of over 1,500 KMs - the project cost swelled and the deadlines continued to be extended. From December 2008, the second deadline was December 2010, followed by January 2015, July 2015 and finally, June 2016. The project finally cost over Rs 1,750 crores.
For public sector Wapcos engineers and workers who were building the dam, 2014 was the turning point when it seemed that the project will finally see the light of the day. The filling of the reservoir in August 2015 led to a change in nomenclature in the project to "Afghanistan-India friendship dam". Street parties sprung up in Herat city, with Indian flags being decorated across billboards. "I have personally led efforts from the front during the last six years and travelled to Dam Site to motivate my team," said Wapcos CMD R K Gupta in an interview with Indianmandarins. The rest, as they say, is history.
