Today’s history: 58 years ago the country got Bhakra-Nangal, this is the second highest dam in Asia as well as India

58 years ago on 22 October 1963, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru dedicated the Bhakra Nangal Dam to the nation. Apart from being the second largest dam in the country, it is also the second largest dam in Asia.

The idea to build the dam was the brainchild of British General Louis Dane. Louis once reached the foothills of the Sutlej river while chasing a leopard in Bhakra, Himachal. Here he saw the flow of the Sutlej river and thought that it could be used to generate electricity.

In 1908, he sent a proposal to the British government for this, but the government refused, citing lack of funds. About 10 years later, the then Chief Engineer F.E. Vader’s efforts led to a detailed report, which proposed to build a dam 395 feet high.

Although the project report of the dam was prepared many times, but every time it could not be passed due to some reason or the other. Eventually the project report was passed in 1948. In this report it was proposed to build Bhakra Dam, Nangal Dam and canals.

It is said that Pandit Nehru was very proud of the Bhakra-Nangal canal project. Nehru visited the project 10 times during its construction.

Work on the project began in 1951. A team of engineers was called from America. It was decided that first a canal would be built so that farmers could get water for irrigation at the earliest. A 60 km long rail line was laid from Ropar to Nangal, roads were also built and a 50-bed hospital was also built to carry goods.

Actually, both Bhakra and Nangal are separate dams, but both have been built under the same project. Bhakra Dam is in Bilaspur district of Himachal, while Nangal Dam in Punjab is about 10 km away.

Nehru inaugurated the project in 1954 and the dam was dedicated to the nation on this day in 1963.

2008: India’s steps towards the moon

Today is a very special day for the Indian space program. ISRO successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 on 22 October 2008. India became the fourth country in the world to do so. Chandrayaan-1, launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, had 11 scientific instruments not only made in India, but also in the US, UK, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria.

Although this mission was of two years, but when it fulfilled its objectives, its altitude was increased from 100 km to 200 km above the surface to collect data related to the gravitational force of the moon. Meanwhile, on 29 August 2009, it lost its radio contact. By then it had done chemical, mineralogical and photo-geological mapping of the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 played an important role in the direction of India becoming a superpower in space.

Chandrayaan-1 made 3,000 rounds of the moon in eight months and sent more than 70 thousand pictures. In this, the mountains and craters built on the moon were also shown. It also sent photos of dark areas in the Moon’s polar regions. The biggest achievement of this mission was the confirmation of the presence of water on the moon. ISRO announced it after analyzing its data and two days later NASA also confirmed it.

It was only after the success of Chandrayaan-1 that India dreamed of missions like Chandrayaan-2 and Mangalyaan and achieved success.

The day of 22 October is remembered in history due to some other important events.

2011: 31 people died when a wooden bridge collapsed in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. In Bijanbari, people from 150 villages had come to hear the speeches of the officials.

1975: Turkish diplomat shot dead in Vienna.

1883: Opening of Opera House in New York.

1879: The first sedition case under British rule started against Basudev Balwani Phadke.

1875: The first telegraphic connections originated in Argentina.

1867: The foundation stone of the National University of Columbia was laid.

1796: Peshwa Madhav Rao II committed suicide.