Mangla Dam, Embankment dam in Mirpur District, Pakistan
The Mangla Dam is a water barrier built across the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir. It spans 3,140 meters, rises 147 meters above the original riverbed, and creates Mangla Lake, which covers a surface area of 250 square kilometers.
Work started in 1961 with eight American companies managing construction, while the British firm Binnie & Partners handled the technical design. Engineers raised the structure by nine meters in 2009 to expand storage capacity to 9.1 cubic kilometers.
The construction required relocating 280 villages and 110,000 residents, leading many families from the Dadyal-Mirpur region to establish communities in the United Kingdom.
The facility generates 1,070 megawatts of electricity using ten turbines and supplies water for irrigation to agricultural areas in the region. Access depends on permissions granted by local authorities, and visitors should check current regulations before planning a visit.
The 2009 expansion addressed the natural buildup of sediment that had reduced usable storage over the decades since the original construction. Raising the wall allowed the reservoir to hold 9.1 cubic kilometers of water.
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