Safety Assessment of 5000 Indian dams pending

The Tala Dam of Bhutan overtopped following unprecedented rainfall. Photo courtesy - SANDRP

By SANDRP on November 3, 2025

At a recent meeting in Pune, Secretary of Union Ministry of Jal Shakti said that safety assessment of about 5000 large dams, out of total around 6000 in India is pending as per the following PIB press release. He went on to urge acceleration of dam safety assessments across the country. This is a worrying situation, coming straight from the secretary of the concerned Union Ministry. It again underlines the sorry situation regarding dam safety in India.

It is not clear what does the report of the safety assessment of the 1000 dams already completed. From the available information about dam safety situation in case of some of the largest dams shows that these reports may also need indicate urgent action plan. An example is the Hirakud dam in Odisha where need for auxiliary spillway has been known for over a decade but we are far from achieving that. Another example is the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala, the safety issue of which is again under scrutiny before the Supreme Court of India. Pending safety concerns of Chungthang dam in Sikkim, Srisailam and Singur dams in Andhra Pradesh-Telangana, the regular damage reports from Polavaram dam in Andhra Pradesh, Subansiri Lower HEP on Assam-Arunachal border, washing away of gates of Madhopur barrage in Punjab in 2025 monsoon, the pending issue of Kaleshwaram’s damaged barrages in Telangana are some of the other cases of concern.

In fact we urgently need audit of our dam safety institutional architecture to see how adequate are these institutions  and their work on dam safety issues in India. We urgently need independent expertise both inside these institutions and all their regulatory bodies, we also need legal stipulations to make all information related to dam safety completely transparent and institutionalisation of accountability in structural and operational safety of dams. That is the least we can do if we value lives of our people, who are risk due to unsafe dams. Let us thank Mr Kantha Rao for initiating this debate.

Safety Assessment of over 5000 dams pending: Govt Shri V. L. Kantha Rao, IAS, Secretary (DoWR, RD & GR), Ministry of Jal Shakti, said at a CWPRS (Central Water and Power Research Station) meeting in Pune on Oct 29 that under the Dam Safety Act, 2021, the pace of assessments remains slow and called for concerted efforts to expedite the evaluation of about 5,000 pending dams (out of around 6000 large dams) by December 2026. The Secretary underscored that CWPRS, should play a key role in handholding and guiding State governments, private consultants and agencies involved in dam safety assessments. He suggested that CWPRS, in consultation with the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) could develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) aligned with the 17 regulations issued by NDSA, drawing upon its extensive experience and technical capabilities. These SOPs, he said, would serve as a valuable framework to help States ensure uniformity, compliance and quality in their dam assessment practices. “We must accelerate dam assessments across the country… ”, he urged.