The basic purpose of Ichari dam is hydro-electric power production. The dam provides/diverts water to the Chibro Power Station and Khodri Power Station. Firstly, water is fed to Chibro Power Station and then, water is returned back to the Tons River which is then fed to the Khodri Power Station.

Ichari Dam is 59 metres tall and 155 metres long gravity type structure. The dam’s spillway is located at its crest and is controlled by 7 floodgates. It has a useful capacity of 511000 cubic meters out of total of 8930000 cubic meter capacity.

Chibro Power Plant

Chibro Power plant is the first underground power station in North India and was started in 1975. This hydro electric power station is of a run-of-the-river type and draws water from Ichari Dam, one of the major river tributary of river Yamuna. An area adjacent to the dam on its left bank, water is diverted into a 6.2 km head race tunnel leading into an underground power station. It is a unique engineering construction in the country as it was the first ever experience in carrying out the tunneling of Himalayas in the Himalayan Thrust Zones due to presence of rocks and heavy structures and thus had various unexpected challenges.

The power station consists of 4 units of 60 MW each with Francis turbine of 84000 HP output. The major challenge was in the construction and then was the maintenance of the area regarding cleanliness, freshness and serenity of the environment and most importantly, the safety measures due to constraint in space.

Khodri Power Plant

This hydro-electric power station is located in the downstream of Chibro power station and was started in 1984. It draws water directly from the 6 km long 7.5 diameter tunnel directly from the collection area of the Chibro Power Station. The power station consists of 4 units of 30 MW each with Francis turbine of 43600 HP output and is located in the Yamuna bank River.

The operation and construction of both the power plants is a marvelous example of one of the engineering works. It is the first of its own kind in terms of maintenance, cleanliness and safety of the plants in the case of their outages.

How to Reach

By Road

Ichari dam is easily accessible by road. The distance between the dam and Kalsi (in main Uttarakhand) by road is 28 km, approximately 40 minutes drive.

By Air

The distance between the dam and Kalsi (in main Uttarakhand) by air is 12 km.