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The Bhakra Dam was completed in October 1963 and has since changed the entire economy of the area, it serves. The devastating floods laying the countryside waste have been controlled and benefits to Irrigation and Power have brought prosperity to the area. The direct and indirect benefits of the dam depend on the storage capacity of its reservoir. This has a designed live storage of 7434-23 million m3. and a dead storage of 2431-22 million m3. to alling to 9865-45 million m3. Silt inflow into the reservoir although being a natural feature, affects the life of the dam. In an endeavour to correctly assess the life of the daw and to explore means to prolong it if possible, the authors have studied the present rate of sendimentation vis-a-vis the assumptions made while framing the project. To do so the catchment conditions have been looked into and results of the capacity surveys, suspended silt measurements, analysed. It is felt that although the present rate of sedimentation is somewhat higher than assumed, there is no cause for alarm. This is chiefly due to the catchment area being poorly vegetated and disturbance of the soil by large scale development activity in the catchment area. The sedimentation has however shown signs of reduction in the past few years.
Remedies such as afforestation and check dams have been suggested to decrease the sedimentation rate and increase the life of the reservoir.
