Koyna Dam

Once we were through with the two day Regional Workshop on Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign at Karad, we had some time in hand to have a glimpse of the nearby Koyna Dam before sunset. About 15 of us, set out from Karad in two vehicles.

The dam located at Koynanagar is about 65 kms from Karad. One can reach the site in about one and a half hour, driving on the excellently paved Karad – Chiplun State Highway, but we took a wrong turn at Dhebewadi, which meant, we had to drive 20 kms extra, on road meandering the beautiful stretches of Sahyadri mountains.

One of the temples of modern India of the Nehruvian era, Koyna Dam, situated in the Patan Taluka of Satara district, is among the largest dams in Maharashtra. Built in 1961, at the initiative of Yashwantrao Chavhan, it has a hydro-electric project, with a capacity of 1,920 MW. Built on a slow flowing, olive green coloured Koyna River, the Koyna project is actually composed of four dams, with the Koyna dam having the largest catchment area. It forms a huge lake – Shivajisagar, whose length is over 50 kms.

The dam site also has a well tended garden called – Nehru Udyan, from where one can have a panoramic view of the dam and a part of the lake. The garden is built on the theme of Panchsheel – sovereignity, non-agression, non-alignment, equality and peaceful co-existence. There is also a film show at a mini- auditorium, which tells the tourists about the Koyna Project and describes its benefits.

The observation post on the Kumbarli Hill, near the MTDC Lake Resort, provides the best view of the surrounding area below. Beyond, Kumbarli Hills, the descent begins to enter the coastal strip of Konkan. We all assembled for a group photo, taken by Ahmed Manzoor, in the absence of our ‘highly qualified’ photo officer Said Akhtar.

While the Koyna dam has helped boost electricity supply and provided water to nearby districts, the dam was also blamed for having triggered spate of seismic activity in the region. A powerful quake measuring 7.5 on the Ritcher Scale shook Koyna, on December 11, 1967, claiming over 125 lives and injuring more then 1,400. About 45 tremors were felt in Mumbai (then Bombay) and more than 100 in Pune. Though, the dam itself did not suffer any major damage – a salute to our civil engineers -the earthquake had a major economic impact in Mumbai. Power shortage meant switching off of street lights and wide spread black-outs. Most of the textile mills, then the backbone of Mumbai’s economy, declared staggered production to tide over the situation. The Koyna earthquake of 1967 remains etched in the collective memories of the people of Maharashtra.


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