Tarbela Dam

The Tarbela Dam extends more than two kilometers across the Indus valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and rises 143 meters above the riverbed. The facility consists of a massive earth-fill structure and a large reservoir that stretches upstream between the mountains.

Construction started in 1968 and lasted more than a decade, requiring the diversion of the riverbed. The project led to the relocation of 96,000 people from over 130 villages that were flooded.

The name Tarbela comes from Pashto and refers to the earlier settlement at this point on the Indus. Today you see fishing boats on the reservoir and farmers use the canals along the shores to grow wheat and rice.

The facility sits about 50 kilometers northwest of Islamabad and is accessible by road from Haripur. Access to the dam wall itself is restricted, but you can view the reservoir and surrounding hills from several vantage points nearby.

The fourteen generators at the site produce a combined 4,888 megawatts of electricity for the Pakistani grid. The water in the reservoir comes from a catchment area of more than 169,000 square kilometers, fed by snow and glacier melt from the Himalayas.

Location: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Location: Haripur District

Inception: 1976

Length: 2,743 m

GPS coordinates: 34.08972,72.69833

Latest update: December 4, 2025 19:03