Roorkee (The Hawk): A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed between Central Water Commission and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) for establishing the International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED) at IIT Roorkee on February 14, 2023, in Shram Shakti Bhawan, Ministry of Jal Shakti, New Delhi. This MoA signing event was chaired by Shri Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, RD&GR(DoWR,RD&GR) Ministry of Jal Shakti in the gracious presence of Prof U P Singh, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkee, Mrs Debashri Mukherjee, Special Secretary,DoWR,RD&GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Shri Anand Mohan, Joint Secretary, DoWR, RD&GR,Ministry of Jal Shakti, Sh Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman Central Water Commission, Sh Sanjay Kumar Sibal, Member D&R.
The MoA was signed by Shri Vijay Saran, Chief Engineer, DSO and Project Director, DRIP Phase II and III and Prof Akshay Dvivedi, Dean of Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy on behalf of CWC and IIT Roorkee, respectively.
This International Center of Excellence for Dams will be focusing on different safety and rehabilitation aspects of Dams, like Hydrological, Hydraulic, Structural, Geotechnical, seismic safety evaluation, and reservoir sedimentation & silt control, etc. This Center is being developed to create manpower having sufficient background and expertise in the area of Dam Safety. This Center will be developed to deal with the complete life cycle of the dam in the longer run. Under this MoA, the Ministry of Jal Shakti under DRIP Phase II and III has provided a Grant of Rs 108.99 crores to IIT Roorkee for establishing this Center of Excellence for dams.
During this MoA signing event, Prof N K Goel, Coordinator of, Dam safety and rehabilitation program at IIT Roorkee, Prof. M L Sharma, Theme coordinator, Prof. Z. Ahmad, Theme Coordinator, and Prof. Brijesh Yadav, Head of the Department of Hydrology were also present. Prof. K. K. Pant, Director of IIT Roorkee joined the event online.
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee has been deeply associated with dams and other water projects of the country since its inception 175 years ago in 1847. The footprints of IIT Roorkee can be seen at the major dam projects of the country and many other dams across the world. Several Departments of IIT Roorkee namely Departments of Hydrology, Civil Engineering, Earthquake Engineering, Architecture and Planning, Earth Sciences, Water Resources Development and Management, Hydro, and Renewable Energy, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, etc. are focusing on various design aspects of the dams. These Departments are coming up with innovative methods that are proving to be successful in the safe and economic design and operation of the dams. The ability of IIT Roorkee to carry out various disciplines of Hydrology, Water Resources, Hydraulics, Structures, Geotechnical, Seismology, Geology, hydro-mechanical and A&P under one roof enables the institute to establish the International Centre for Dams and develop it as one of the most advanced centres in the world.
The International Centre for Dams shall initially focus on the reservoir sedimentation and silt control, and seismic hazard analysis and mapping in the initial 2 to 3 years. In the coming years, the centre will be developed to deal with the complete cycle of dam safety starting from planning of a dam, design, construction, operation, and maintenance including policy and financing. Conforming to the DRIP’s objectives, the center will be aimed at promoting new technologies and improving Institutional capacities for dam safety evaluation and implementation in India as well as in other countries for the existing dams to start with. Subsequently, the center will also take up the tasks of the complete design of new dams in India as well as abroad.
India has 5334 large dams in operation and about 411 large dams are under construction. The safety of these dams is of utmost importance. Many of the existing dams are very old and need rehabilitation. Keeping these concerns in view, IIT Roorkee has taken the lead to establish a new M Tech. Programme on Dam Safety and Rehabilitation for the in service engineers in close collaboration with Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Bank with effect from August 2021.
Prof. K. K. Pant reaffirmed the commitment of IIT Roorkee toward water security and safety of dams. Prof. U. P. Singh, Deputy Director assured the best efforts of IIT Roorkee to develop the International Centre of Excellence for dams to meet the expectations of the country and the International community.
Prof. N. K. Goel, Coordinator of the Dam safety and rehabilitation program at IIT Roorkee thanked the MoJS for entrusting the responsibility of establishing ICED at IIT Roorkee and assured the commitment of the faculty colleagues and students at IIT Roorkee towards the dam safety and rehabilitation. He thanked Mrs Debashree Mukherjee for giving continuous guidance to IIT Roorkee for this program.
Shri Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, DoWR, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti said that ‘’Government of India has taken a number of policy initiatives for improving the ecosystem for dam safety management in the country. Establishment of International Centre of Excellence for Dams at IIT Roorkee is one such important initiative in this direction. He further stated that in the long run, with the active involvement of the academic and central institutions, domain expertise in dam safety management will be available within the country, which will give right impetus to the Government of India Mission “Atmannirbhar Bharat” and will also provide a window of opportunity for disseminating knowledge and expertise in this area to many underdeveloped and developing nations in future.’’
Mrs Debashree Mukherjee, Special Secretary, DoWR,RD&GR said that ‘’ICED at IIT Roorkee will provide state of the art technical knowhow that is at par with the international practices and standards in the field of dam management and safety to address the issues encountered by the dam owners. She further observed that ICED will provide robust solutions for dam safety challenges through research and development, sponsored consultancy services, having need-based collaborations with leading global institutions and experts.’’
Shri Anand Mohan, Joint Secretary (RD&PP) on the said occasion expressed ‘’that Government of India apart from establishing the two Centers of Excellence for dam safety, also developing the institutional capacity building of various central agencies and other premier academic institutions in the dam safety areas and the country in the coming years will become self-reliant in addressing the complex dam safety issues and challenges.’’
Shri Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman CWC said that ‘IIT Roorkee, through this Centre, shall also endeavor to embrace new technological advancement in other dam safety areas and help provide cutting edge solutions to challenging problems faced by dam owners’.
Shri Vijai Saran, Chief Engineer, DSO and Project Director, CPMU, DRIP Phase II and Phase III, Central Water Commission, said, " To ensure long term sustainability of capacity building of our dam owners, Government of India has taken many initiatives. One of the most important initiatives is the capacity building of our academic institutions to widen the horizon of dam safety knowledge in the country to provide technical support to our dam owners and the establishment of Centre of Excellence is one of the activities under these endeavors . He also stressed that this Centre would endeavor to promote good blend of academic as well as industry knowledge, through involvement of officials from CWC/dam owning agencies in the various activities of the Centre, from time to time. This will help in capacity development of officials in dam safety areas."
Prof. K.K. Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, "The formation of International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED) will empower 'Make in India' in dam safety, plus augment advanced research and developing technologies and application products. We are eager to contribute to the mission of the Ministry of Jal Shakti.”