Salma Multipurpose Dam, a goodwill project executed by the Indian Government in Afghanistan, is likely to be commissioned in the middle of next year, almost a decade after the beginning of construction work.
In a symbolic gesture, residents of Afghanistan’s Herat province thanked India with a 100 metre India-Afghanistan friendship flag.
Being built at a cost of over Rs 1,400 crore across the Harirud River at Chist-e-Shariff in Herat province of Afghanistan, the project envisages generation of 42 MW of power, besides having the potential for irrigating 75,000 ha of land.
Salma dam is the second largest overseas hydropower project built by India, sources said, adding that its annual energy generation would be 86.6 giga watt hour.
The reservoir water spreads about 20 km in length and 3.7 km in width, while the dam, which is 107 metre high, 550 metre long and 500 metre wide, has the gross water capacity of 633 million cubic metres.
(With PTI inputs)
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