PM inaugurates Wapcos-built Afghan-India Friendship Dam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam (Salma Dam) with Afghanistan President Dr Ashraf Ghani in Herat province in Western Afghanistan on Saturday.

The Salma Dam, a multi-purpose project planned for generating 42 MW of power, irrigating 75,000 hectares of land and for supplying water and other benefits to the people of Afghanistan, is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by government of India on river Chist-e-Sharif, in Herat province of Afghanistan.

The project has been executed and implemented by Wapcos Ltd, a government of India undertaking under the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation.

The project is located 165 km east of Herat town and connected with earthen road. Due to security reasons Indian engineers and technicians involved with the project have been reaching the site once in a month by helicopter service provided by government of Afghanistan.

All equipment and material were transported from India to Bander-e-Abbas port in Iran via sea and then along 1,200 km by road from there to Islam Kila border post at Iran-Aghanistan border and then further 300 km by road from the border post to the site.

Cement, steel reinforcement, explosives etc were imported to Afghanistan from neighboring countries. The gross capacity of the Dam is 633 million cubic metres. The height of the dam is 104.3 metres, length 540 metres and width at the bottom is 450 metres.

The project is funded by Government of India. The successful completion of the project represents culmination of years of efforts by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions.